Seattle Seahawks – Paul Allen

The Microsoft co-founder plummeted eight spots from last year’s ranking, and no, it’s not because he recently filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against my employer, among others. (Still, if CEO Carol Bartz and other Yahoo! bigwigs are reading this, I wonder if they’re thinking, “Wow, that Michael Silver is a hell of a team player. Mess with the Exclamation Point, and he will alter football jersey
your reality and punctuate it with a figurative foot up your rear end. Talk about purple pride. I’m so glad we have him on our side!” But I digress …) I’ve long been critical of Allen for being detached on a league level – he almost never attends meetings – and now his highly regarded right-hand man, CEO Tod Leiweke, is on his way out. Leiweke, who will give up his job running the Seahawks, Portland Trailblazers and MLS Seattle Sounders (all owned by Allen) to take a job as the Tampa Bay Lightning’s CEO – he’s hanging around until a replacement is named – said the lure of gaining a small ownership interest in the NHL franchise was what sparked his decision. Some of Allen’s fellow owners, however, believe Leiweke left because he was tired of working for a demanding, idiosyncratic billionaire. “Leiweke was great,” one owner says, “and he goes from running your NFL team, NBA team and the most successful MLS team to running a authentic nfl jersey
hockey team in Tampa? Honestly, how is that not a statement about [Allen’s] ownership?” Let’s face it: This was a disastrous year for the franchise all the way around. Following the debacle in which Holmgren spent a lame-duck season as the Seahawks’ coach in ’08 while assistant Jimmy Mora hung out as his contractually anointed successor, Mora was canned after a single year on the job, causing Allen to eat $12 million. Then he gave another $35 million (over five years) to woo USC coach Pete Carroll at a time when the Trojans were facing major sanctions and the former Jets and Pats head coach was clearly looking for an escape route. Throw in the fact that Allen allowed Holmgren and since-fired general manager Tim Ruskell to engage in a bitter feud for three seasons after the team’s disappointing Super Bowl XL defeat. Back then the Seahawks had nfl jersey shop
a massive waiting list for season tickets; it has since gone the way of Courtney Love’s post-Cobain music career.