Ten years later, Allen's Seahawks realize vision

Ten years ago, the most ardent Seahawks fans weren't painting their faces for a playoff game. They were literally trying to stop the moving vans as they headed south from Kirkland with the team's equipment and dreams.

The Seattle Seahawks had been relocated to Anaheim, Calif., their offices in a Residence Inn, their future in the hands of a California real-estate developer.

Ken Behring didn't ask the NFL's permission to transfer his team to Southern California. He just did, intent on filling the fiscal void left by the Rams' move to St. Louis.

The NFL called him back, but what future was there in Seattle with Behring as owner? Would he just let the team wither away until the NFL had no choice to let him go, or would he sell to a local owner if one was found?

Behring insisted the team wasn't for sale.

On Easter Sunday 1996, the Seahawks were facing fourth-and-40. Behring still wasn't willing to sell, and Paul Allen wasn't sure the public would help him build a new stadium.

"Paul was leaving for Asia," said Bob Whitsitt, who then worked for Allen, "and he asked me to prepare a publicity release explaining that he was no longer interested in trying to buy the team."

Whitsitt asked for a week.

Who was more at the center of the Seahawks than Whitsitt, who, as the front man for Allen, hired Mike Holmgren to a long-term contract?

Or whose firing as the Machiavellian administrator a year ago by Allen may have set in motion the mojo that has culminated in today's NFC Championship Game against Carolina?

Ten years ago he came up with the compromise that saved the Seahawks — a 15-month option for Allen to buy the team, one that would give him time to see if he could get a stadium built and give Behring a no-lose deal.

"I tried to convince Ken that he'd either make $100 million on the deal [if Allen exercised the option and bought the team], or he'd be headed for the promised land in Los Angeles if he didn't," Whitsitt said recently.

Whitsitt's logic was if Allen, a local guy with loads of money and support, couldn't get a stadium built, then the league would know Behring couldn't and let him move.

The option also allowed Allen to save face and withdraw if a stadium deal didn't materialize.

For more than a year, Whitsitt worked between Behring and Allen, who, under the option, shared direction of the team. Behring didn't want the Seahawks to trade up in the 1997 draft to get Shawn Springs and Walter Jones because he didn't want to commit to the salaries the two would command.

Whitsitt convinced Allen to obligate himself to the salaries whether he ultimately bought the team or not.

"I couldn't be more excited about where the team is today," Whitsitt said this week. "Sure, I'd like to be a part of things, but I have life, I have balance, and I have opportunity."

During a routine physical shortly before Allen fired him, Whitsitt, who was 48 at the time, was told that by 50 he should undergo a procedure to detect possible colon cancer.

"I said, 'Why not do it now and check it off?' " Whitsitt explained. He is certain he would have never seen 50 if he had waited.

Whitsitt said he called his boyhood friends in Wisconsin and told them about a growth that had been detected and the surgery that would be needed to remove it. He advised them to be screened, and in the process it saved one of their lives.

For a while, Whitsitt ran both the Trail Blazers and the Seahawks for Allen, commuting to Portland, working countless hours. It seemed as if he were involved in everything.

"My mother lives half the year in a condo in Florida, which I've never seen," he said. "Now, I've got time to visit her and I'm going to. I read books instead of magazines. I've got the flexibility to take a hike if I want to."

Whitsitt has formed a business-management consulting team with his wife, Jan. They're also involved in philanthropic endeavors. They still live in their Eastside home.

He said he is not overly concerned about his legacy in Seattle, or his reputation.

"I'm a big boy," he said. "If you're frustrated running a team, it's always better to fire the suit-and-tie guy than the coach or the player. There's no sour grapes with Paul, none at all."

Depending on your point of view, Whitsitt either hired a bunch of thugs in Portland and alienated a city, or kept the Blazers a perennial playoff team.

He was either the reason Holmgren came to Seattle, or a threat to drive him away.

"I left the Seahawks with the most cap room in the NFL," he said. "We had a vision of keeping the team in Seattle where it belonged, with local ownership, a great stadium and a competitive team.

"I think that's been realized."

So was reaching 50 this month.

Comments for Blaine Newnham can be e-mailed to sports@seattletimes.com.