Crammed into the front seat of a team bus the night before a game, Jake Olson and Pete Carroll showed off their battle wounds. Olson lifted his shirt to reveal a scar running down his stomach — he got it climbing a tree with his twin sister, Emma, several years earlier. Not to be outdone, Carroll held up his right hand to show off his gnarled finger.



Olson was 12 at the time. Carroll was 58. In the decade since, they have shared text messages before one of the biggest wins in Seahawks history and after the most heartbreaking loss; a Jet Ski ride on Lake Washington and an emotional phone call after Olson’s first game at USC, the school that means so much to both of them. But Jake cherishes that bus ride: he and Emma squished in one seat, Carroll next to them, the bus rolling toward the team hotel the night before USC played Oregon State in 2009.



“It’s not supposed to be like that,” Jake says. “Nothing is supposed to be like...