Fun.

Isn’t that what playing sports are supposed to be? Isn’t that what we teach our children?

Coach Pete Carroll coached his Super Bowl winning Seattle Seahawks to have fun playing football. He had a rah-rah coaching philosophy that seems like it could change the present NFL coaching paradigm that football is totally serious business.

We like that the Seahawks have character. We like that their players feel they can be themselves and speak freely. We are tired of coaches and players giving predictable statements and boring interviews. After all, this is a game, not congressional hearings, not a stockholder convention, not an assembly line. It’s supposed to be fun and entertaining.

To be sure, taunting is wrong. Run-ins with police are definitely wrong.

But the dour, shut-up-and-play coaching paradigm set by Bill Belichick and his New England Patriots has been duplicated through the league over the past 15 years. It’s not sending the right message, either.

Let’s hope the 2013-14 Seahawks have blown the doors off that way of thinking. Let’s hope the play-hard-but-have-fun-and-be-yourself aspect of Pete Carroll’s methods spread through the NFL and down to youth football, where that philosophy ought to be the only modus operandi.

Fun while playing a sport? What a novel concept.