Tightrope. You cannot let the audience go. If you once allow an audience feel like they have to sit back and you can look at their program and take out their cell phone you know they that theyve lost. So every second you have to have within you this invisible feeling that and each breaks you out that my god, this must be maintained and renewed. Rose paul allen and peter brook when we continue. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Rose whats it like for you on draft night . Oh, you know, its always exciting because theres theres options and trading up, trading down. So im studying. Rose we begin with paul allen he is, has of you know, the cofounder of microsoft. It made him billions of dollars. He is a man of varied interests, including neuroscience, the study of the brain. He also is the owner of the Seattle Seahawks and he is in new york where we talked to him this week about the chances for his Seattle Seahawks to win the super bowl. So what is the philosophy that john and pete have put together that makes the seahawks in the super bowl. Well i think both of them are out of the box thinkers. They like speed, they like theyre like cornerbacks and receivers. Theyll like larger players in some cases, faster players. In the case of russell will sob they just loved the level of and the skill even though most people ruled them out as a firstround pick and i think if we redid the draft today he would certainly be taken in the first round. So they have the ability to think outside the box and as a general manager you have to have what i call the golden gut. You have to have a sense of whats inside of a player and what gets that player over the top because these are such amazingly competitive sports. Rose and thats what they saw in Russell Wilson . They saw that in Russell Wilson and many players on our roster. Rose whats the satisfaction for you . I think the satisfaction comes on a number of Different Levels one is just seeing how the Community Responds to the team and enjoys seeing the Team Victorious and supporting them. I think especially in smaller markets. I think that that comes to the fore in a pretty unique way in seattle with the 12th man and in portland with the rift city mindset we have down here. So thats rewarding to see the fans embrace the team in that way and then for me behind the scenes you get to know the people, you get to know the players, the coaches. See how its all coming together and try to make a good suggestion here or there so theres the satisfaction in doing that, too. Im not quite as obsessional as i used to be. In the early days i tried to memorize the statistics of every n. B. A. Player but im not that quite that bad any more. Rose but you do have a mathematical approach to this. I think all of sports these days is becoming much more analytical. The amount of the film moneyball i think showed that side the of where the games have gone. Its much more detail oriented, analytical. So theres that whole side of it so the i can ask the more detailed areas in those questions. Rose did you say ive got to do that thisor seattle . They already spent a week down in l. A. I did i did feel that. But i only wanted to do it if i felt like the team could be successful financially because a lot of times, especially smaller markets the team can struggle financially and lose money and its not that much fun the worstcase scenario youre looking at is a team that underperforms and youre losing money and then youre wondering why did you do it. And this is the flip side of the coin where the team is playing super well. So this is the moment every owner in the n. F. L. Loves to be in. Rose what role did your mother play in this . Well, my mother was a very, very enthusiastic sports fan and and my father, of course, took know many Football Games as a kid. Rose to see the huskies. And wed jump on hot dogs and it was pretty much smash mouth football then at the university of washington. So im not sure how exciting the games really were. But my mother really loved especially basketball games and you would fly down to portland for the games. One of her hallmarks is that she would scold the referee. She would say excuse me, sir, that wasnt a very good call. Rose laughs and theyd give her a funny look or whatever but she in fairness it was really important to her. So that sensitized me to be observant about those things and makes you just want to makes you want she really cared about the players and i feel the same way about my the athletes. Rose care about them what way. You want to see them successful. You want to make sure all the medical treatments and all the things you can do to provide a path to success is there and if there are any issues there are people to help them deal with any issues. So i think thats thats something that i dont know how many people should become sports owners unless they feel that way about their athletes because, you know, these sports are very physical, very intense, there are going to be ups and downs and so theyll be there to support the players any way you can. Rose do you worry about all the studies about concussions and what its doing to players and how you can get ahead of that and what changes you can make . Of course. We have to get a better understanding of all the ramifications of concussions, what the right protocols are and i think the league stepped up. Were doing a much more thorough assessment of i think youve seen this season of concussions or something that might be concussion occur it is player goes to the locker room, hes assessed and all those things and youve seen this some adjustments of the rules, you try to prevent concussions. But there are many things we dont understand. For example, who is more susceptible to concussions and is one player more susceptible than another . But the problem is the brain is such a complex organ that and i know from the research being done at my Brain Institute, its going to take us a number of years to come to any particular conclusions on these things but i thought it was incumbent on me since i have people studying the brain to try to help out in that area. Rose your mother had alzheimers. Thats correct. Rose so you watched the impact of that, which is a brain disease. Yes, and its anybody whos had that in their family, had that experience, its truly horrific and very tough for everybody involved so if you can potentially help bring forward treatments for alzheimers or parkinsons or lou gehrigs disease or any of these things, thats a wonderful prospect. So hopefully out of the basic research were doing at my Brain Institute there is will be treatments that will be brought forward. Rose so whats possible, do you think, in the next four or five years in Brain Science . Well, i think youve done a lot of shows on in discussions, deep dives into Brain Science with dr. Kandel who im a big fan of. And i think you find out that all science progresss progresses incrementally and then every once in a while off breakthrough. So what i tried to do with our initial work at the Brain Institute was to understand the genetics of the mouse brain and then the human brain and we finish those projects and try to understand how the brain really works in detail. And that is an amazingly challenging its going to be hopefully well see some results in the five years. But all of these threads of research, youre looking at decades of research, many decades of research to fully understand something about how the brain works. Rose is that what makes being rich a fun thing . You can go create an institute to follow your own curiosity, you can purchase a professional sports team, buy a franchise, and have an opportunity to put together what you hope will be a winning team. You can make investments, you love rock and roll, you can have your own band. I mean, its not bad being rich, is it . Well, its basically gives you more possibilities. It gives you many more opportunities to try to make the world a better place and plus enjoy the particular passions you have and then try to give back. Whether its the music museum in seattle, or the Brain Research, any of these things, a lot of it is about finding ways to give back to your community, to science in general, to return your with hopefully some difference that you were able to make some of the fruits of the effort you put in. In my case, that came from work i did in my 20s. Rose in terms of starting microsoft. Correct. Rose i want to talk about that, too, but let me stay back with seattle. What has this done for seattle and the people of seattle that they are going to be on february 2 watching their team in the super bowl . Well, its fantastic. I mean, the amount of we call it the 12th man. The amount of support that weve seen, we set a record for the intensity i think its 137. 6 decibels or something of noise during a game. That the amount of flags in the buildings, all those things and the number of everybody on social networks now, the amount of support, its all reached an amazing level of excitement and im just im just going to enjoy being there and hopefully were going to have a lot of fans in the stadium rooting for seahawks and for the broncos, too, but its going to be an intense game and for the city i think its anything that brings people together in this day and naj a positive way is a great thing. Rose the game against San Francisco you launched the 12th man. Yeah. I raised the 12th man flag. Rose what did that mean to you . Well, i did in the 2006 when we played in the conference championships and its just i dont many things like that so for me to hear from the fans that they really appreciate what i tried to do with the team and their excitement level, thats just a tremendous moment as a sports owner. Rose what is it you like about the team . Well, i guess theres a number of things. Were a very young team but the team that built their again, a lot of it is about speed and grittiness and determination and fearlessness and pete kind of uniquely gives the players ability to express themselves, to be who they are and i think thats really a trend more and more in sports. I think todays players do much more of that. You see much more of that activity on everything from social networks to the omnipresent coverage that you get on all the different sports channels. So pete kind of uniquely celebrates that. And yet within a framework that because you have to have the discipline to take that energy that you get from that and focus it on what you need to do every weekend to win a game. So all of that comes together and pete makes it all fun. I think you will see in some of the clips in the locker room where petes going through all the different contributions during the game and the guys are its almost a College Level of enthusiasm in the locker room that having been an owner and seeing previous coaches, thats pretty unique. Rose were you surprised you could get him . Because he had a good thing down at u. S. C. I was. I was. He had had such tremendous success, u. S. C. s national championships. I think one of the thing he is does is he has the team prepare each week as if it was a championship game. At a very high level but not to get too high or too low from one week to the next. So thats a pretty unique level to have those expectations and steadiness at the same time. Rose what might have been the conversation between pete and sherman . I think, you know, i think Richard Sherman in the moment, you know, there was such excitement, he was full of adrenaline after beating San Francisco and i think he let loose a little bit and i think petes point to him was youve got to think about that moment could be a distraction for the team so celebrate the moment and i think essentially just explained many times it was in the moment, thats not really me dont judge me just from that one moment. Rose was it is distraction . In the end i think theres so much coverage and i think thats one moment and now that people have gotten to know richard to the extent of coverage weve had this week i i dont think its a factor anymore. Rose every time i look at a quote from you about him you talk about intelligence. You know, richard is a stanford graduate, hes extremely bright and if you think about i think in terms of study in film studying all those things if you think of all the rules are kind of tilted against you as a defensive player, you have to study film and really think about the theory of all the different routes and react in realtime and be able to anticipate and and people will tell you its not like richard is the fastest cornerback or anything else but its his intelligence that enables him to make those plays he makes. Rose what do you worry about about the super bowl . In the super bowl . Look, in the super bowl the broncos are a great team. Theyve got a hall of fame quarter back thats had an amazing year. And he on the field in effect operates as a coach and hes seen what the defense is doing, hes in effect calling all the plays so the question is all of the offensive skill versus are toprated defense. So thats going to be a very, very interesting thing to watch. I think our offense has a chance to prove that they can do more than people think they can. So thats going to be very interesting to see. Rose at the core, what does winning the super bowl mean for paul allen . Well, again, since this will be my fourth chance at a championship it would be wonderful for me when i think more about the fans and it had city and celebrating a super bowl victory for any city but especially for a city that hasnt had one that would just be fantastic. But you cant get ahead of yourselves, weve got a big job to do on something. Rose and what will you do between now and sunday. As an owner theres many, many events ill be participate in here and ill be thinking about it and ill probably take some of the coaches aside to get more detailed explanation of what our approach is going to be. Rose so what questions are you going to ask of your coachs . What is it you want to know . Well, the detailed strategy, if you think about it, like just the preparation of Russell Wilson, he watched every hed watch every like he watched every throw drew brooes made as a professional quarter back. Rose every now have every throw, i believe. So im sure our coaches are dissecting every pass Peyton Manning made this year, every defense they that works against him, the ones that didnt, how can you bring our best players to bear against stopping their passing attack and theyre a very wellrounded team. And then on the offensive swhid are we going do uniquely . Because you have to throw some you cant just be conventional. You have to throw some surprises. Rose and you want to know what the surprises might be. At least the owner wants to know that. I have to admit that i do and i usually talk before every game and say okay, what are the wrinkle this is week end . And hes got a couple of them ready to go. Rose so what was the best one during the season . Im not sure i can remember a best one. I remember not that long ago he said that they were going to run a little sweep with percy that and percy hadnt been able to play in that many games this year and sure enough he picked up nine yards. But there are all those Little Details, football is such a detailoriented game as compared to other sports. All those Little Details add up to making the difference. Because in every game theres a few explosive place can change the whole outcome. Whereas in basketball any particular basket may or may not be critical. Rose but you have a passion for basketball. Yo have you learned to feel do you feel the same way about football now that you felt about basketball when you bought the seahawks . Today my passion level is equal for both teams. Football is so different because its a once a week event whereas basketball, you know, its 82 games, then the regular season. So any particular victory or loss you cant let it affect you that much. Whereas in football you have either a whole week to celebrate it or a wheel week to kind of kick yourself and ask more questions which im sure john would say okay, paul asks questions more than most owners. Rose and where do you put Brain Science in terms of your own ambition and legacy . Oh, no, Brain Science, theres a few problems if you think you can contribute to them that are the most challenging problems for science and mankind Going Forward and if i can make a difference in those areas, that would be great. So id like to meet with the scientists, talk about their approach at a large scale and, you know, the big landscape of how theyre attacking these problems and see if i can add some value there and so far its been immensely rewarding. Rose what do you want to understand about . Well, theres so many different aspects to the the thing about the brain is its designed by evolution and so its not like a computer. Computers have elements that do addictions and subtractions and comparisons and its a bunch of memory. The brain is designed by evolution so every little bit is amazingly complicated and duds its job amazingly well but its different from the bit thats just a little bit away. Even though there are similarities and youve probably covered this on some of your other shows. So you have to overcome that level of complexity and i call that the Complexity Break because were prevented from making amazing progress just by the here is level of complexity. So you have to find ways of slowly deconstructing all that complexity hopefully at a faster and faster pace to create break throughs in Brain Research. So thats a huge challenge. Rose whats the possibilities of Artificial Intelligence . Thats another area that i find compelling and fascinating because what youre doing in Artificial Intelligence is compared to Brain Research where you have something you know works but you just dont know how it works. In Artificial Intelligence youre saying okay, we dont know how to represent and do logical, say,