SEATTLE – They looked pretty smug and satisfied with themselves up there on the stage, grinning like big-game hunters who just bagged The Big One.
Having already earmarked as much as $100 million to Walter Jones, Matt Hasselbeck and Shaun Alexander, Seahawks CEO Tod Leiweke and owner Paul Allen were practically slapping their thighs and yelling “wheee” as they introduced Tim Ruskell as team president and general manager to the media.
It’s likely Leiweke and Allen appeared ready to start a conga line because they knew that Ruskell’s signing, reportedly for five years and between $1.5 and $2 million a year, dwarfs in importance that of Seattle’s Big Three.
If Ruskell doesn’t work out, the other three contracts won’t add up to so much balsa wood. And if he does, the team and community will feel his effect long after The Big Three retire.
Repeatedly referring to Ruskell, 48, as a “unifier,” Leiweke and Allen know firsthand the alternative. Suffering from a fractured front office the past several years, Allen had seen enough to fire Ruskell’s predecessor, Bob Whitsitt, reportedly at odds with just about everyone, including coach Mike Holmgren.
Operating on the premise that you can’t fire all the players, and feeling in his gut that Holmgren was the right man in his position, Allen got hands-on involved as he has never before in team matters. He showed Whitsitt the door and specifically mentioned that he wanted a football guy to take Whitsitt’s place.
Whoever thought Allen considered his little ol’ football team a toy in his vast financial empire had to think again.
“I’m probably less patient, in some senses, than I used to be,” he said. “I think the thing about Seattle Seahawks fans and myself is that we’re all thirsty to see it moving forward in a positive direction. I felt like changes had to be made to take this franchise to the next level.
“I think signing Tim and the signings of the last couple of days, we’ve advanced. We still have a lot of work to do.”
Allen got his football guy – a lifelong football guy: Ruskell was a ball boy with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before moving on to bigger and better things.
Ruskell will be asked to do what Whitsitt couldn’t – or wouldn’t. Members of the front office simply weren’t on the same page. It showed up in personnel decisions, especially in the fact that the Seahawks ended the season with 16 unrestricted free agents.
It’s no accident that, following Whitsitt’s firing Jan. 14 came the resignations of vice president of football operations Ted Thompson and director of scouting Scot McCloughan, who left for better jobs with the Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers, respectively.
Nor was it a surprise, considering the change of climate in Seahawks management, that general manager Bob Ferguson high-tailed it this week.
That he is a football guy made Ruskell the logical choice to wear the hats of president and general manager, although the Seahawks have had an unsuccessful past in that regard and forced Holmgren to relinquish his GM role to concentrate solely on coaching.
Leiweke said Ruskell was the natural choice to put his signature on both roles. Unlike Whitsitt, Ruskell is a unifier.
“That’s part of his reputation,” Leiweke said. “He’s not an ‘I’ guy. He’s a ‘we’ guy. That’s what the Seahawks are. We expect that out of our players. They play as a unit; they play as a team. What’s on the front of the jersey’s more important than what’s on the back. He’s that same kind of guy.”
Ruskell’s first task: Get all the front-office types in the same room for the first time and shake hands for the first time.
To unify, one must first introduce.
Then it’s time to get to work.
There’s much to be done before the real conga line forms.
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