If the Sunday’s Super Bowl proved anything, it’s that finding success on the field can eliminate pretty much any criticism, trial or stereotype.

I guess it also proved that Seattle is a pretty decent football team.

But just off the playing field, pacing back and forth on the sidelines, is a redemption story. No, its not one of the players with the skinny green-eyed bird plastered on the side of their helmet.

It’s the man with the silver-white hair. The man screaming, clapping and high-fiving the guys 35 years his junior, like he was out there punishing the Broncos with them. The 63-year-old now-NFL champion Pete Carroll.

Though we will now remember Carroll holding the Lombardi trophy up in navy and green, it was not always so.

As a recent Forbe’s article details, Carroll was once run out of the NFL, fired from head coaching positions at both New York and New England. His record was a pedestrian 33-31, and he was labeled as a guy more fit to coach in the college ranks.

Demoted to coaching in the NCAA for the USC Trojans, Carroll’s hiring was highly criticized, as many believed his failures in the NFL would follow him to a big name university such as Southern California.

Like Sunday night, Carroll proved the doubters wrong.

He collected multiple national championships, a 34 game winning streak from 2003-2005 and a 97-19 record overall. Not too shabby.

However, Carroll left for the Seahawks amid controversy at Southern California, as the Trojans had a season of wins and a national championship vacated due to infractions by former running back Reggie Bush.

Many criticized him of leaving at just the right time, and questioned his decision to jump back to the NFL when USC just began its bowl ban seasons. Carroll, always honest about his reluctance to return to NFL, happened to feel comfortable right as the hammer came down on USC.

Coincidence? Maybe. It definitely did not make him more respectable to those that already did not see him in a positive light.

Either way, Carroll has completely revamped the Seattle Seahawks franchise since his arrival. He is loose, and so are his players. His coaching style is different, but no one can question that works.

A recent SI.com details how he has spurned league standards and practices.

Carroll does not use high-tempo spread attacks like much of the rest of league. Instead he pounds the ball down your throat, with precision and intelligence.

Is the Seattle offense spectacular? No. But they looked a hell of a lot better than Denver’s record-breaking squad. Carroll proved defense still wins championships.

Carroll creates his successes off the field. In hard work, making his players comfortable and happy, and making sure they understand that he has full confidence in them to win any game.

Carroll is a player’s coach in a league that thinks you need to be a sharp-edged disciplinarian to make it to the top.

His entire career, Carroll has been re-defining how the media and fans see him. Who remembers he was kicked out the NFL 14 years ago? Who remembers he left USC amid shambles and scandal? I don’t.

The American public has a short memory, and winning is what sticks. And that’s the image the Pete Carroll has created for himself, through hard work and perseverance.

And even at 62, he might just be getting started.