by: Michael Steffes
Take a look at this folks. Good idea, poor execution. Michael Silver of Yahoo has posted his owner rankings. He puts Paul Allen at 13th!?!?!! Here is what he says....
It’s not necessarily fair, but I always measure Allen against his massive potential – and the Microsoft co-founder inevitably comes up short. Reclusive and not particularly consumed by league business, Allen should be joining Kraft, Jones and Snyder in pushing the NFL to uncharted heights. Instead, he dips into his vast fortune to give the Seahawks every chance to succeed, hiring savvy executives like CEO Tod Leiweke and general manager Tim Ruskell and largely staying out of their way. Usually, that’s a good thing, but I’m docking Allen points for allowing coach Mike Holmgren to serve out what amounts to a lame-duck season while designated successor Jim Mora works on his staff. It doesn’t take someone as brilliant as Allen to realize that such an arrangement could become highly problematic, especially if Seattle struggles in the early part of the ‘08 campaign. Still, for the most part, Allen is first rate.Idiot! This stuff pisses me off more than most. It is one thing to completely discount our team, but to take this bias to our owner is really disappointing. He criticizes him for hiring smart executives and staying out of the way. Right...because Allen is football genius, just like Dan Snyder who ranks 3rd on the list and drives Redskins fans nuts with idiotic moves like hiring coordinators before coaches. Oh wait, and what else. Silver is docking Allen points for having a lame duck season and Mora on staff, because he already knows it will be a problem. How I wonder, it has never really been done before. And lets take a look at the #6 owner, Jim Irsay. Yup... no mention of the fact that the Colts have taken the exact same approach. Idiot!
In my opinion, Paul Allen does it right. He shows himself just enough, and he does serve on league committees. If that goes unrecognized by guys like Michael Silver, well than I have even more confidence he is the best thing to ever happen to this organization. ~END~
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