I find this relevant to the topic. I'm a die hard Seahawk fan, and I have to admit, the firing of Mora was handled really poorly (though I was happy he got canned). This from the Seattle PI: http://blog.seattlepi.com/football/archives/199099.asp Pretty classless move by Allen and Leiweke.
I have to say, Vulcan isn't filling me with a lot of confidence. I'm beginning to worry that the last couple of years will turn out to be as good as it gets, as Vulcan systematically eliminates anyone who isn't willing to be a yes-man. I'd hate for the Pritchard years to be the short-lived oasis, similar to the Gruden years for the Raiders. At least Raiders fans got a Super Bowl appearance out of it.
That just seems like sour grapes to me. Wasn't the post-season media session a scheduled event? Isn't the coach the featured speaker at such events? Wasn't Mora employed as the coach on that day? Is his gripe that they didn't fire him sooner? As for Paul not reaching out to him - how many company owners "reach out" to their fired employees? barfo
I don't know, it was a pretty unique situation in Seattle. Their GM, Tim Ruskell, had targeted Mora as their next HC after Holmgren was to retire. They "groomed" Mora for a full season as the DB coach to take over for Holmgren (Mora's 2nd or 3rd year in the organization as DB coach). Mora takes over, wins one more game than Holmgren did the previous year, then the GM gets fired and management decides to go a different direction after just one season with Mora as HC. He was told to hold the post season presser while Leiweke went to SoCal to interview Carroll for Mora's job. Seems a little underhanded, I think. Even if firing Mora was the right thing to do, which, in all honesty was and is up for debate especially because Carroll was considered a "better" option. Couldn't have Leiweke and Allen handled the situation with a little more class? After all, Mora is a Seattle guy. Went to UW, grew up in Seattle, and is highly regarded throughout the Seattle area. It was his dream job (behind the Husky gig). And he was treated with very little respect, IMO.
Man, this guy Dave of BlazersEdge is a jerk. I hate him. What a hateful article. He's just another Canzano. Portland has way too much media focused on the Blazers. Vulcan has done nothing wrong. There's no classy way to fire higher ups. You just get it over with and let the chips fall where they may. As for "running his team into bankruptcy and losing control of the arena"--that happened because of Allen's generosity. You see the spending as bad business deals, I see it as the whole reason we have an above average team and arena in a small market. As for the Seahawks--notice that it all fell apart after they got rid of Bob Whitsitt? It's like killing Saddam Hussein--he may have been a tough ruler, but you're having to be even meaner to hold this organization together. He wasn't so bad after all.
It is bad business. Losing your own arena is a special sort of fuck up, especially when you're one of the richest men in the world. Allen is a terrible businessman, and his #1 fault seems to be putting his personal feeling ahead of his business decisions.
