Anyone looking for clues on whom the Seattle Seahawks will select in next year's NFL draft can skip all the analysts and go straight to the source -- coach Pete Carroll.
The Seahawks' social media savvy coach posted clues on Twitter about a handful of his team's picks this year.
Carroll's first tweet, on the day of the draft, was the following:
1st of the #SeahawksDraftClues! "Van down by the river" from Chris Farley! http://t.co/uxiFGegjRR
— Pete Carroll (@PeteCarroll) May 8, 2014
This video is from a classic Saturday Night Live sketch in which Chris Farley is a motivational speaker who lives in a van "down by the river." As it turned out, the Seahawks traded down with their first-round pick.
Carroll's second clue was another video:
Second of the #SeahawksDraftClues! Will Ferrell & John C Reilly ESPY host audition: https://t.co/uAY54seCQT
— Pete Carroll (@PeteCarroll) May 8, 2014
At the 1:06 mark of this clip, comedian John. C. Reilly jokes that he wants to fight Muhammad Ali. The legendary boxer's given name was Cassius Clay. The Seahawks' fourth-round pick was UCLA defensive end Cassius Marsh. See how this works?
Ferrell, a close friend of Carroll dating back to their USC days, was the star of another one of the coach's clues.
This could possibly be our best clue ever... "Tranquilizer to the jugular" from Old School! http://t.co/muTSc168nG #SeahawksDraftClues
— Pete Carroll (@PeteCarroll) May 8, 2014
This scene, from Old School, co-stars Sean William Scott. Seattle's sixth-round selection was Marshall offensive tackle Garrett Scott.
Jared Stanger of the Seahawks blog Field Gulls cracked these and several of Carroll's other tweets, and his detective work earned him a shoutout from the man himself.
Wow! He might be on to something!#SeahawksDraftClues RT @JaredStanger The Carroll Code: deciphering the twitter clues http://t.co/afYljZXNQM
— Pete Carroll (@PeteCarroll) May 12, 2014
My attempts at matching up to the DaVinci Code have been officially challenged! #SeahawksDraftClues
— Pete Carroll (@PeteCarroll) May 12, 2014