As for the split between Kris Richard and Pete Carroll...
Listen, we're trying hard not to betray anyone's trust.
Let's just say...Cliff Avril got the story from God. He read it in the Bible. We called in a favor with Cliff Avril, and so Cliff Avril rode the elevator to heaven, waited outside God's office, got buzzed in, and got the story.
The point of the 'explanation' was that nothing actually happened between Carroll and Richard. They love each other. Nor did anything weird or illegal or immoral or unscrupulous or whatever your imagination can come up with happen, to where Richard had to be ushered quickly out of the building. Nor was there a "difference of philosophy" which various bullsh-t articles have been trying to peddle for a while.
There was a decision, a mutual decision, which means both sides agreed, that Kris Richard wasn't going to be taken as seriously as he should be, given as much credit as he should be, wasn't going to get a head coaching opportunity, unless he steps out of Pete Carroll's shadow and structure. He had been Pete Carroll's longest-tenured assistant, and Carroll said if you want to be a head coach you've got to get out of here and do this somewhere else because until then everyone's going to keep attributing your successes to someone else.
Good coordinators are so valuable that one can easily IMAGINE that such a decision might be...frowned upon...by selfishly interested people who think you should do everything you can to keep a good coach working for you.