Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll walks onto the field before Super Bowl XLIV, held at the University of Phoenix Stadium on Feb. 1 in Glendale, Ariz. Credit: Courtesy of TNS

Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll walks onto the field before Super Bowl XLIV, held at the University of Phoenix Stadium on Feb. 1 in Glendale, Ariz.
Credit: Courtesy of TNS

When a game like Super Bowl 49 between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots comes to an end, there will always be questions.

Perhaps the biggest question from the latest Super Bowl is one that will always be debated.

Why did Seattle coach Pete Carroll decide to throw the ball for the win with arguably the best running back in the league in his backfield and a timeout left?

The call that ultimately ended the Super Bowl was the kind I would compare to a last-second play decision on “Madden.”

To defend Carroll, I would have to imagine he scouted the Patriots’ defensive line when he said he didn’t think they could run the ball against the New England goal-line front, but with all due respect to him, he made arguably the worst play call in football history.

To not give the ball to Marshawn Lynch (who I think is the most disrespectful player in the NFL right now), one of the top backs in the league who had carried for 102 yards on 24 carries, who was one of the reasons the Seahawks were there, is barbaric to me.

Not only was Lynch cheated, the entire Seahawks team was cheated.

Only Carroll knows why he allowed Russell Wilson to flick the ball into the arms of undrafted Patriots safety Malcolm Butler. And while that was not the way he thought the play would turn out, he can’t have been sure it would end well.

And Wilson, who many experts tab as one of the smartest quarterbacks in the country, should have been just that. SMART.

In that situation, Wilson shouldn’t even have had a second thought about changing the play at the line of scrimmage. And if he and his coach are as close as they lead on to be, then Carroll would have had no choice but to respect that decision.

However, that is not what happened and for the fourth time in 14 years, the New England Patriots and Tom Brady are world champions.

Now, football by all means is a team game.

The self-named “Legion of Boom” Seahawks secondary was subpar to say the least, giving up more than 300 yards passing to Brady and four touchdown passes to four different receivers.

Richard Sherman did well to embarrass himself by throwing up a No. 2 and a No. 4 with his hands to make fun of Patriot cornerback Darrelle Revis after Revis whiffed on defense, allowing Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin to get behind him for a score.

To be fair to Sherman, however, he was one of the first non-Patriots to greet Brady and offer his congratulations to the Michigan grad once the clock hit zero.

And if all that wasn’t enough, the Seahawks’ defense, shredded all night by Brady, made itself look even worse by seemingly starting a fight as Brady innocently took a knee to try and end the game.

The fight gave a black eye to what could be one of the best Super Bowls of all time and tarnished the Seahawks’ reputation.

For Seattle fans, they can only hope Carroll and the rest of the Seahawks get their act together and maybe practice against that goal-line defense in “Madden” just once to try it out.

You never know what might happen.