The proverbial ax was certain to fall somewhere in the Seattle Seahawks organization, and it finally came down near the top Friday morning.
Team president Bob Whitsitt, who has reportedly been at odds with head coach Mike Holmgren for some time now, was fired after nine seasons with the Seahawks.
Owner Paul Allen announced the decision in a conference call with local reporters.
“This is not about particular interpersonal dynamics,” Allen said. “I have to look at the whole landscape, the expertise of the different people involved, and ask myself the question: What can I do to improve the future prospects of the franchise?
“These are decisions I do not take lightly. They’re critical decisions. I just felt this is one I had to make.”
The firing marked one of two major personnel changes within the Seahawks’ front office Friday. Vice president of football operations Ted Thompson also left the organization to become general manager of the Green Bay Packers.
The Seahawks are currently pursuing replacements for both positions.
Whitsitt joined the Seahawks when Allen bought the team in 1996. The pair also worked together with the Seattle Sonics and Portland Trail Blazers until Whitsitt left his position as president of the Blazers in 2003.
After spending more than 15 years as an NBA executive, Whitsitt turned his sole focus toward the Seahawks during the summer of ‘03. And his relationship with Holmgren reportedly became strained shortly thereafter.
A story in the San Francisco Chronicle last November reported that Holmgren had grown so frustrated that he began considering other job opportunities.
Asked during his end-of-the-season press conference Tuesday whether he and Whitsitt were at odds, Holmgren gave a terse, and not overly convincing, denial.
“We’re OK,” he said. “There’s no problem.”
Holmgren and Whitsitt met on Monday, two days after the conclusion of the tumultuous 2004 season. Holmgren said that the meeting was brief and that the coach’s job security was not discussed.
In the end, it was actually Whitsitt’s job security that was on shaky ground.
“Anytime you have an unsuccessful season like we did, you let the sting of that loss fade away a little bit and you think about what you need to do to move forward,” Allen said. “I just felt like we needed to make a change here to improve our prospects in the future.”
During his tenure as Seahawks team president, Whitsitt was instrumental in getting Qwest Field approved and helped make the decision to hire Holmgren.
But since he devoted himself to the Seahawks full-time, Whitsitt has made some moves that have drawn criticism. First, he fired salary cap expert Mike Reinfeldt, then paid a lofty $14 million signing bonus to free agent defensive end Grant Wistrom.
Wistrom and Seattle’s other key signing, cornerback Bobby Taylor, struggled through injuries as the Seahawks stumbled to a disappointing 9-7 record.
Whitsitt’s reputation as Allen’s right-hand man has also been tarnished following his departure from the Blazers, as well as the Seahawks’ addition of CEO Tod Leiweke in June 2003. Leiweke ranks just below Allen on the team’s corporate ladder, and his presence will make the transition to a new president less daunting.
The team will immediately begin searching for Whitsitt’s replacement. Allen said the candidate was likely to come from outside the organization, adding that he wanted someone “with a deep background in football.”
The first name on the list could well belong to Randy Mueller. A former ball boy who worked his way all the way up to executive vice president, Mueller left the organization to become general manager of the New Orleans Saints in January 2000. He was named NFL executive of the year in his first season with the Saints, but got fired was fired in May 2002.
Mueller currently works as an analyst for ESPN.com and lives outside of Spokane. He did not return calls to The Herald on Friday.
Another name that will inevitably be mentioned belongs to former Packers general manager Ron Wolf, who was Holmgren’s boss in Green Bay and has since retired. Wolf briefly came out of retirement to serve as a “special assistant” with the Cleveland Browns last January, but he lasted less than four months before going back into retirement. It seems unlikely that Wolf would come out of retirement again.
With 17 players scheduled to be eligible for free agency and two high-profile jobs open in the front office, Allen and Leiweke should be pretty busy in the coming weeks.
“Obviously we’re a little short-handed at the moment, and we have to move quickly with our search,” Allen said. “But (general manager) Bob Ferguson and Mike (Holmgren) are going to pitch in, and we’ll be talking to the agents of the players involved.
“We’re going to have to really address those issues quickly and forcefully. But we want to find the right person, so we’re going to be doing both those things simultaneously.”
Notes: Seahawks wide receiver Jerry Rice will be an in-studio guest on ESPN’s pregame show before Sunday’s Minnesota-Philadelphia game. The two-hour show begins at 9 a.m. PST. Rice appears with the regular cast of host Chris Berman, analysts Tom Jackson and newly named Hall of Fame finalists Michael Irvin and Steve Young, reporter Chris Mortensen and former coach and Hall of Fame member Mike Ditka. … Rams linebacker Tommy Polley was fined $5,000 by the NFL for his facemask tackle of Seahawks running back Maurice Morris last Saturday.
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