Latest / The Gregg Bell Show / 9-9: Seahawks kick off the NFL season, and we meet the new owners of the team!

Transcript

9-9: Seahawks kick off the NFL season, and we meet the new owners of the team! · The Gregg Bell Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now, from the Star Reynolds Sports Desk, your 93.3 KJR
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: FM Sports Headlines.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Good morning.
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: Happy Wednesday from Jimmy's on First right across the street
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: from Lumen Field. First game of the NFL season. Headlines
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: are brought to you by Frostburg Coors Light, as cold
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: as the Rockies. It is NFL opening day right here
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: in Seattle, right here at Lumen Field across the street
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: from where I'm sitting.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Seahawks officially game report.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: Starting safety Ty Okada is out with a hamstring injury.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Hasn't practiced all week.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Safety Nicky Manwari questionable, I've been told, and everything I've
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: seen is it's very unlikely that he will play.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: He's not going to play tonight.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Still yet to fully practice since mid-June, since the arthroscopic
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: ankle surgery in July.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Right receiver Torrey Horton is questionable. He hasn't practiced since mid-August.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: Leg issue, I'm told, is not related to his surgery
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: in February that had a metal rod inserted in his
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: lower leg to repair the cracked shin from, of course,
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: his rookie season last November. The Patriots running back Trevon
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: Henderson is out with an ankle injury. It's going to
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: be Ramondre Stevenson or Bust in New England's running game tonight.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: 5-20 kickoff.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: It's on King 5 television if you don't have tickets
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: to the game. The new Seahawks owners Vinod, Niru, and
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: son Neil Kozla are having an introductory press conference at
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: 11 a.m. inside Lumen Field. We'll broadcast that live here
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: on the show on KJR. Defensive tackle Aaron Donald is
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: not traveling with the Rams to Melbourne, Australia. for the
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: season opener against the San Francisco 49ers tomorrow. Head coach
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: Sean McVay said that yesterday. The Buccaneers gave Baker Mayfield
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: a three-year extension worth $ 165 million, $ 55.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Million a year.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: You can bet Sam Darnold's agent Jimmy Sexton and the
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: CIA sports folks noticed that. Darnold, of course, entering year
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: two of his three-year deal. He's on track for a
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: huge raise next summer. He's got a three-year $ 105 million contract.
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: The Mariners are finished. They're just playing out the string
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: at this point. Sure looked like that last night. Another
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: sleepy loss. 10-5 to the Rangers across the street from
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: here at the yard. And Soto, the only highlight, this
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: Laz Montes monster. Smacked.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Center field.
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: This one is a cannon shot. Laz Montes. We have
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: never seen one way back there. What a first home
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: run inside T-Mobile Park!
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: 474 feet!
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: That was a breathtaking home run.
• 2:36
  Speaker 5: Wow.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: It went up to about the concourse of the 100
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: level beyond right center field, above the J-Rod zone, the
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: no-fly zone. I mean, the top of that first section.
• 2:47
  Speaker 6: It was pretty.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's almost center field. That's right center field. Man,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: hit it on the top.
• 2:54
  Speaker 6: That's hard to.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Hit, too.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: I haven't seen anyone even in batting practice hit it
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: out there in my years of covering the Mariners. That's
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: a long way. No wonder Aaron Goldsmith and Mariners TV
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: was all over that call because that was pretty much
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: the only highlight. They fell behind 9-3. They lost 10-5.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: I don't even know how many games they're back. I
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: only know there's 17 left, and the math ain't mathin'
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: for the Mariners.
• 3:16
  Speaker 7: No.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: They're getting what they deserve.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: Aaron Judge returned to playing for the first time since
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: May 31st. Missed 84 games. His fractured rib. He went
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: 0-3 with the Yankees. Two Ks and six innings. The
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: Yankees are going to ease him back in. And in tennis,
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: American Ben Shelton still stunned. Spain's tennis superstar Carlos Alcarez.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: Five-set marathon at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadow, New York.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: It ended at 3.33 a.m. Latest finish ever at the U.S.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Open.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: Shelton against fellow American Francis Tiafoe in the semifinals of
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: the U.S.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: Open.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: I was at the gym last night swimming and I
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: look up and I see on the monitor tennis. It
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: was like 10 o'clock Pacific time and I thought, that
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: has to be taped.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: It was only like in the first set.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: Now on with the Wednesday show from NFL opening day.
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: Craig Pella, Jimmy's on first right across the street from
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: Lumen Field. Jessamyn McIntyre back at the studios at Elliott
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: Bay in Seattle.
• 4:13
  Speaker 6: Give me those talkbacks.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: She isn't there by herself for the next two hours.
• 4:19
  Speaker 6: I call it my own darkness retreat. I'm Aaron Rodgers-ing.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: You are. It's not dark in there, is it? It's
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: not a retreat.
• 4:27
  Speaker 6: It will be. It's not a retreat, Greg.
• 4:31
  Speaker 7: But it is darkness when all the lights go off
• 4:34
  Speaker 7: because no movement is happening in the studio.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: So we are down here. The fans are starting to
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: come in with Seahawks gear already in Jimmy's.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: And there's also a Mariners day game. There's some people
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: with Mariner attire on.
• 4:48
  Speaker 6: People will double dip today.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: They will.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: They will, and I love the Mariners, man. I was
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: going to go over there and spend an hour or
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: so watching the game, but I'm not going to bother
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: at this point. I mean, especially some of the players
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: look like.
• 5:02
  Speaker 6: You've gone to apathy. There you are.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Well, the players have been there for about two months.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: They don't run out ground balls.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: They swing on 3-0. They throw live balls into the stands.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: They were there way before I got there, but yeah,
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: I'll be going over across the street at 11 o'clock.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: The Kozla family is going to have an introductory press conference,
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: take questions from myself and the media.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: A couple things.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: Well, actually, I'll open up the text line. Tacoma Dodge
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: text line 49451 right at the top of the show today.
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: What would you like to know? As a Seahawk fan,
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: if you were sitting in the press conference room, I'll
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: be sitting in at 11 o'clock and you'll hear the
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: press conference live here on the show.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: What would you ask the new owners? What do you
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: want to know?
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: I'll keep it within bounds of something you know they
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: would answer and something that they would want to discuss.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Mention or talk about publicly.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: But give me a couple ideas of what you'd like
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: to know, what you would ask the new principal owners.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: They just spent $ 9. 612 billion with the B dollars to
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: buy the Seahawks, the richest sale in NFL history. It's
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: now official. It's cleared the banks. It was approved a
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: week ago by the NFL owner, a week and a
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: half ago by the NFL owners in Atlanta on a
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: unanimous vote. And now today they take over the keys
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: to the franchise inside the stadium in They will now
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: be for quite a bit. I've been told, Jessamyn, one
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: of the questions that may be on the text line,
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: are you going to move here? They're Bay Area based.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: Of course.
• 6:30
  Speaker 6: Well, Silicon Valley, I mean, duh.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Bay Area, Sun Microsystems co-founder, Vinod is. His wife
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: has started an online education, AI-assisted reading program for kids
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: and adults based in the Bay Area.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Their son.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: has started an AI medical company based in the Bay Area.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: I've been told that there's a possibility, and in fact,
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: I think.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: John Schneider said on the record, he did on the record,
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: saying that there has been some talk that Neil Kozla,
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: the son in his late 30s, and the one who's
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: going to probably be the day-to-day long-term owner of the
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: franchise as far as operating directly with the football ops people,
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: that Neil Kozla may in fact move here and be
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: based here instead of the Bay Area now that the
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: Kozlas own the Seahawks. And I know that's a concern,
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: and they've got out-of-town owners, and this city's history with
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: out-of-town owners. And as Jess and I have said, we've
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: been spoiled until now since 1997, and really for all
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: but a few years of the Seahawks' 51 years of existence,
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: they've had local ownership. Nordstrom, of course. The Nordstrom family
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: bringing them into the league in the mid-1970s, and then
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: only for a short period where they owned by an
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: out-of-towner that tried to move into Southern California. In fact,
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: moved some of the furniture in the building in Kirkland.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: I was there watching the moving vans in the late 90s.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: And then, of course, Paul Allen bought them, kept them here,
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: but built the stadium that I'm looking at across the street.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: And they've been on local ownership since 1997. And here
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: we are back now, outside owners. It's not even worth
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: mentioning again how this is not even close to a
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: Sonics sale to outside owners and a completely different situation
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: for sure. But it's a question that outside owners and
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: ownership and whether they're going to live here, and I'm
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: sure that's on the text line going to be one
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: of your questions that some of you might want to know.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: But I don't know, Jess, but I just don't feel
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: that it's even a concern that they don't live here.
• 8:28
  Speaker 7: No, I don't, and I appreciate their enthusiasm for the league,
• 8:33
  Speaker 7: and I know that people do take issue with the
• 8:37
  Speaker 7: fact that they were minority owners with the 49ers, and
• 8:40
  Speaker 7: that Koza came out and was very transparent about being
• 8:44
  Speaker 7: a Steelers fan. And I did very much enjoy, though,
• 8:50
  Speaker 7: I think it was Barstool that went out and said,
• 8:53
  Speaker 7: here's how not to do a press conference or something.
• 8:56
  Speaker 7: And they got ratioed so bad where people are like,
• 9:00
  Speaker 7: why do you care?
• 9:01
  Speaker 6: Like, this is.
• 9:02
  Speaker 7: Being transparent about being a football fan and whatever drew
• 9:07
  Speaker 7: you in.
• 9:08
  Speaker 6: I mean, I grew up in New York. I still
• 9:11
  Speaker 6: root for the Seahawks. But that's what I've said.
• 9:13
  Speaker 7: I have a dichotomy of spirit because I have my
• 9:15
  Speaker 7: AFC team, I have my NFC team.
• 9:18
  Speaker 6: The same with baseball.
• 9:20
  Speaker 7: But I think that the transparency is what's the best.
• 9:24
  Speaker 7: He's not trying to pretend at all that he just
• 9:28
  Speaker 7: is a born-bred and true and blue and rave green
• 9:34
  Speaker 7: Seahawks fan.
• 9:35
  Speaker 6: Action green, sorry.
• 9:37
  Speaker 7: But I just think that They have been completely open
• 9:43
  Speaker 7: and honest with the public and know that they're coming
• 9:46
  Speaker 7: in from the outside and appreciate that.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Well, think about it.
• 9:51
  Speaker 8: He moved here in 1976 from India. It's not like
• 9:55
  Speaker 8: there's NFL teams in India not in the 1970s. Could
• 9:58
  Speaker 8: you even watch an NFL game in India? And he
• 10:01
  Speaker 8: comes here in 1976. What's going on in 1976?
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: The Steelers are winning the second of their four Super
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: Bowls in six years. When he turns on NFL football,
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: American football, all he sees is Terry Bradshaw and Mean
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: Joe Green, and that was the height of the Steelers,
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: the beginning of Steelers. In the middle of the Steelers dynasty.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: So of course he liked the Steelers.
• 10:22
  Speaker 7: And he was young when that was happening. It drew
• 10:25
  Speaker 7: him into the sport. And that's what I like. Is
• 10:28
  Speaker 7: that he's drawn into the sport. So he cares about it.
• 10:30
  Speaker 7: You want an owner that this isn't just an investment.
• 10:33
  Speaker 7: It's not a money thing. They actually care about the sport.
• 10:36
  Speaker 7: And I like that a lot.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Not to mention it was 50 years ago. He's 71
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: years old now. Exactly.
• 10:45
  Speaker 6: That's what I meant.
• 10:46
  Speaker 7: He was young, and he got drawn into the sport.
• 10:49
  Speaker 7: The Seahawks weren't alive. They had not drawn a breath
• 10:53
  Speaker 7: quite yet. So, yeah. I don't take any issue with that.
• 10:57
  Speaker 7: I don't care that... I do care that he was
• 11:00
  Speaker 7: a minority owner in the Niners, because that means he
• 11:04
  Speaker 7: was already... They, I should say, they, as a family,
• 11:07
  Speaker 7: were already invested in the sport.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: But....
• 11:12
  Speaker 7: I don't care that it was the 49ers. I just
• 11:15
  Speaker 7: care that they care.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: And to set the record straight, they have to divest
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: that 3%. They have to sell it. They can't be
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: minority owners of one team and majority owners of another.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: So they have to sell that 3% stake.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: And as a.
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: Practical matter, what that did was it gave them the
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: inside track to getting approved by the league for this sale.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: Because they had to get approved by the NFL in
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: the same process to be a minority owner as to
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: be a principal owner. So the NFL had already approved
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: them for owning a team, and that was the inside
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: track to get them to buy the Seahawks and why
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: they were an attractive buyer in the owners' minds and
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: why it was approved unanimously. So it's not a negative
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: but a positive from the league standpoint. Parochial view of
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: the Seahawks fandom might say it's a negative, but the
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: global view, parochial, that could be another one of your buttons,
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: I think.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Oh, wait, hold on. Nerd alert. Nerd alert. Nerd alert! Yeah, Greg.
• 12:16
  Speaker 6: Parochial, yeah. That one counts.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: Secular, another one.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that would be secular thinking that you're going to
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: have to have owners that are locally based in order
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: to own a franchise. It's the exception now to what
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: the Seahawks have had for the last.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 12:33
  Speaker 6: We've been lucky.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Yes, we have.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: And that's not what many, most sports franchises are not
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: owned by people who live in the communities they live in.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: And it bears repeating, the fact is, no local owner
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: stepped up to the point that they would become interesting
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: for the estate of Paul Allen or the NFL owners
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: to approve. So here we are. And today will be
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: the introductory press conference. I already see on the Tacoma
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: Dodge text line 49451 some good questions, including from the 425,
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: can you ask if they're willing to change the uniforms
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: back to the original color scheme, the OG color scheme
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: with the updated logo?
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: That's interesting.
• 13:11
  Speaker 6: Well, do they make that decision, though?
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: Well, they have to submit it to the league for approval. But, yeah,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: they can make that choice.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: And then the league has the merchandising people and Nike
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: and all their partners. It's more of a rubber stamp.
• 13:27
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: If the owners want to do that, they could do
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: that for sure. Okay.
• 13:31
  Speaker 6: I don't know the process. So that's why I asked.
• 13:33
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: One question I've thought of asking is how they view
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: Lumen Field, how they view the lease. how they view
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: what they deem it to be as a stadium. The
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: lease is through 2031. They have a 10-year option of
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: a series of 10-year options that begin in 2031. I
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: would be interested to hear their view of the lease situation.
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: If he'd say, oh, we've got a 10-year lease after 2031,
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: we're good. I would also be interested to hear if
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: he was interested in expanding the stadium. I've talked about
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: how an easy way to expand capacity from 67,900, about
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: 68,000 as it is now, to above 70,000, is to
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: close the north end zone, the downtown side, next to
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: the Hawksnath seats, those open corners of the northwest and
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: the northeast part of the stadium. If you close those
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: with permanent seating, that would be an easy few thousand
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: seats at more added revenue. And I would be interested
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: to hear what he has to say about Lumen Field,
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: what they have to say about the stadiums. that they're
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: now inheriting the lease that they're now inheriting with the
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: public stadium district that owns and operates the stadium. I'm
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: not sure they'll answer that question. They may default to,
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: we just got here, we're going to sit back and
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: watch and learn, which is what they've.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: Said so far.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: They have said, there should be music to all of
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: your ears, that they aren't touching the football operations, at
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: least not right away. They said, Manoj Khosla, when he
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: was approved, the day he was approved in Atlanta for
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: the sale, said, we... are very lucky to how fortunate
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: we are, how often you get a chance to buy
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: a Super Bowl champion team months after they won it all.
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: And the answer is never. This has never happened before.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: So he's and they are well aware of that. But
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: 49451 at the Comodage text line, I'd be happy to
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: take questions that you would ask if you're in the
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: press conference with the Kozlas. I mean, Jessamyn, this is
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: going to be, it reminds me a little bit of
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: the World Cup, which is maybe the last time I
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: was down here broadcasting. But as far as a day
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: to showcase the Pacific Northwest in Seattle, this is going
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: to be fantastic. It's going to be 78 degrees. There's
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: already blue sky and no clouds here in downtown Seattle.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: The sun's out.
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: And not only that, I was counted up on the
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: way in. This is my 21st NFL opening game as
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: a beat writer. And I've only covered the NFL kickoff
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: game twice, meaning that the team I was covering had
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: won the Super Bowl twice. And, of course, the other
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: one was in 2014 on a Thursday night. Similar weather,
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: similar vibe. NBC crew here for Green Bay and Seattle
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: after the Seahawks won the Super Bowl in February of 2014.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: This doesn't happen a lot. It just doesn't.
• 16:17
  Speaker 6: No, it doesn't for any team.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: It doesn't happen.
• 16:20
  Speaker 6: Maybe if you're Kansas City, it happens a little more often.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: Even then, the Chiefs were bad, bad, bad for a
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: long time.
• 16:25
  Speaker 6: It's not always. So it's special when it happens.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: It is.
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: This is a special day for the Pacific Northwest. It's
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: so hard to get back to, let alone win a
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: Super Bowl. We're well aware of that here in Seattle.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: But this is a rare event. And as I said,
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: twice in my 21 years of doing this with the
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: Oakland Raiders and the Seahawks. But this is a big deal.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: It is totally different than any other opening day. A
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: standalone game that the entire football world, and I mean world,
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: goes around the world, including in North America, watches. All
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: football people watch. Everyone watches this game on a standalone
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: Wednesday night. It's the first Wednesday game in Seahawks history.
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: They have never played on Wednesday, and we know the
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: story behind that. It was because the Australia game and
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: the 49ers and the Rams, and they wanted that to
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: be either on a Wednesday or a Thursday, but they
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: didn't want to steal the Seahawks' cachet of being the
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: Super Bowl champions and having the first game at home
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: and unveiling the banner. The pregame festivities, there's going to
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: be a Luke Bryan concert that Jessamyn's going to in
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: the north lot of the stadium.
• 17:31
  Speaker 6: With a lot of our cohorts here on our music stations, yes.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: What time's that gig going?
• 17:37
  Speaker 6: That is kicking off at 2.30. So Luke Bryan, yes, 2.30.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: That's kind of a big deal.
• 17:45
  Speaker 6: Which I learned from the music people. Yeah.
• 17:50
  Speaker 7: I've been to a Luke Bryan concert at the Gorge.
• 17:52
  Speaker 7: I know that he's a very fun person to listen to,
• 17:55
  Speaker 7: but I don't necessarily subscribe to a ton of music
• 18:00
  Speaker 7: in general and not that genre always, but I very
• 18:05
  Speaker 7: much enjoy it, and I think it's going to be
• 18:06
  Speaker 7: a really good time.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: Then before kickoff, in addition to the 12th man flag raising,
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: which we'll talk about in a second, They will unveil
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: the banner that's covered up.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: It's on the west side upper.
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: Deck underneath the cantilever roof on the water side of
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: the stadium. There is a banner up there, a Super
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: Bowl champion banner that's been covered up for the last
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: month and a half or so. They will unveil that
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: banner and then the 12 flag raising. And I'm pretty
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: sure it's going to be Jody Allen. And it should be.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: It should be.
• 18:38
  Speaker 6: I mean, I'd be shocked if it wasn't.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: It would be a fitting goodbye, wouldn't it?
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: Handing off the franchise to the Kozlas on the day
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: the Kozlas are officially introduced.
• 18:49
  Speaker 6: I mean, maybe they'll do it together.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: Who knows? That could be.
• 18:53
  Speaker 6: I could see that.
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: Vinod Kozla, who's very active on TwitterX, has already said
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: on that social media platform that he would fully support
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: Jody Allen raising the flag today.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: He thinks that would be very fitting.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: It bears mentioning again, Jody Allen is the one At
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: the fork in the road in the Seahawks franchise after
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: the 2023 season when the Seahawks did not make the
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: playoffs after Pete Carroll's 15th year, it was Jody Allen
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: who chose John Schneider's path forward and not Pete Carroll's.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: She fired Pete Carroll. She chose John Schneider as the
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: new ultimate football authority, which he was not while Pete
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: Carroll was here for 15 years. And it was John
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: Schneider who then went and got what he saw as
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: the most innovative defensive mind in football. And Mike McDonald
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: from the Baltimore Ravens staff, the defense coordinator for the Ravens,
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: And here we go. Two years later, Super Bowl champions,
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: completely ironclad brotherhood culture in the locker room. That was
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: Jody Allen that did that. And that is her legacy.
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: and stewardship of the franchise and the death of Paul
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: Allen in 2018. But 49451, we'll read back your text
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: at 1130. At 11 o'clock, you'll hear the Kozlas introductory
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: press conference live from the stadium across the street. Up next,
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: my keys to the game. How the Seahawks can beat
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: the Patriots for the second time in seven months and
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: one day in a real game. The factors that they
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: need to come into. And then later on, Sam Darnold
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: and the sports psychologist who changed his life and what
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: he told him. All that's coming up on 93.3 KJRFM.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: The NBC Kurt Gowdy music. I love that, man.
• 20:38
  Speaker 6: That's for you.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: All of us in our 50s know exactly what that
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: music is and can go right back to Kurt Gowdy,
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: Aldi Regattas, Kurt Gowdy with Don Meredith, with John Brody,
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: Three River Stadium. Yeah, that takes me way back. NBC
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: has the call tonight. Mike Tirico threw out the first
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: pitch of the Mariners game last night and Chris Collinsworth.
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: on the call of the Seahawks and Patriots. 5.20 kickoff
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: on King 5. King 5's having a two-hour pregame show.
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: I'm going to be on it live at 3 o'clock
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: from the field with Paul Silvey, Chris Egan, and the gang.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: And the kickoff is at 5.20. If you're coming to
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: the game, get here early enough for, well, a Luke
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: Bryant country concert in the North Lot starting at 2.30.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: And then the unveiling of the Super Bowl banner on
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: the west end under the roof of the west end
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: of the stadium, the top of the 300-level stands. And then,
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: of course, the 12th man, the 12th flag raising right
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: immediately before kickoff at 5.20 p.m. So the keys to
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: this game tonight. Well, first of all, it's always the quarterbacks, right?
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: Sam Darnold. I wrote a story in the News Tribune
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: this morning.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: Actually, posted last night, yesterday evening, about Sam Darnold's transformation
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: in 2024. The numbers, everything suggests that that was the
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: U-turn of his career. Before that, he was a nomadic
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: 27-year-old quarterback. He Failed with the Jets after being the
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: third overall pick in 2018. He failed with the Carolina
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: Panthers after two years there with more losses than wins.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: He was a backup quarterback in San Francisco for one
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: season to Brock Purdy, where he actually brought Brian Fleury,
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: the new offense coordinator for the Seahawks, was on that
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: same staff with.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Darnold as a backup quarterback.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: Then he signed with Minnesota in the spring of 2024,
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: and he thought, okay, this is my chance to be
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: a starting quarterback at a franchise that needs a quarterback
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: starting over at the position. And then about a month
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: and a half after they drafted him, they drafted J.J.
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: McCarthy 10th overall out of Michigan and said, he's our guy.
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: McCarthy was going to be the starter. And in training
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: camp of 2020, McCarthy blew out his knee, missed the
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: entire season. Sam Darnold becomes an accidental starting quarterback in Minnesota.
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: And during that time, he consulted a sports psychologist. He
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: talked about it for the first time this spring in
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: a podcast that former NFL player Chris Long has.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: And that's the first time I heard it.
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: So I asked Sam Darnold about that this week, about
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: consulting a sports psychologist. He didn't detail it here. He
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: tells you why he did it, when he did it.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: But what the sports psychologist told him was, for all
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: your football life, when you were a star at San
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: Clemente High School in Southern California, when you were a
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: star at USC, when you were the third pick in
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: the NFL draft, when you were trying to put a
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: foothold in as a starting quarterback with three different teams...
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: You were building a house. You were hammering nails, hammering nails, hammering, hammering,
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: hammering your way at building this house. And the sports
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: psychologist told him, Sam, you're at the point in your
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: life and your career, you need to step back, quit hammering,
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: and start painting the house. Start using a brush instead
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: of a hammer and be easier on yourself. Praise yourself
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: for where you are among one of the best quarterbacks,
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: best players in the world at your position in the
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: highest level of the sports. And take a step back
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: and not be so hard on yourself. And ever since then,
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: he's been painting. He's 31 and 7. Since that time,
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: since consulting a sports psychologist, Sam Donald is 31 and 7.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: He's made his first playoff starts of his career. He's
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: won his first Super Bowl. He signed a $ 105 million
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: contract that's going to probably double at this time next year.
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: And he got married to his longtime sweetheart, Katie Hufnagel,
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: this April. This is what I, when I asked Sam
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: Darnold this week, this past weekend about concerning a sports psychologist,
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: why he did it, when he did it in 2024,
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: this is what Sam Darnold said.
• 24:37
  Speaker 10: Sam, the mental coach you turned to a couple of
• 24:39
  Speaker 10: years ago, what, why was it at that point in
• 24:41
  Speaker 10: career you did that?
• 24:42
  Speaker 11: Who got you to who or what?
• 24:43
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 24:45
  Speaker 12: Well, I had been, I had been kind of thinking
• 24:47
  Speaker 12: about it, um, you know, and I had been trying
• 24:50
  Speaker 12: to be honest, I'd tried some, some different sports psychologists
• 24:54
  Speaker 12: and it just didn't really click. Um, You know, with him,
• 24:56
  Speaker 12: it just clicked. You know, he was, you know, he
• 24:59
  Speaker 12: just explained like kind of the science of why our
• 25:02
  Speaker 12: brain goes to a certain place or, you know, and
• 25:05
  Speaker 12: a lot of it is to just protect ourselves, like
• 25:07
  Speaker 12: the fight or flight stuff. So I think for me,
• 25:09
  Speaker 12: it was like understanding the science of why my brain
• 25:12
  Speaker 12: is going to a certain place. And that allowed me
• 25:14
  Speaker 12: to kind of just, I guess, use some hacks to
• 25:19
  Speaker 12: be able to, you know, trick myself into thinking that,
• 25:23
  Speaker 12: you know, everything's fine. No, I've had to work on it.
• 25:30
  Speaker 12: Still working on it every day. I'll get frustrated on
• 25:33
  Speaker 12: the field sometimes, especially in practice when we're still trying
• 25:37
  Speaker 12: to tweak things and figure it out. I'm always trying
• 25:40
  Speaker 12: to get better mentally.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: Sam Darnold saying he's doing this every day. His mental crutches,
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: as he said, his catches and hacks that his sports
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: psychologist taught him. And that's key number one to tonight's game. Remember,
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: Darnold led the NFL with 20 turnovers last season, yet
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: the Seahawks, he and the Seahawks won 17 of 20
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: games and the Super Bowl. I mean, that's really unusual
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: for your quarterback to lead the league in turnovers and
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: you win the Super Bowl.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: That's how good the Seahawks defense was.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: And the reason that they won the Super Bowl is
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: that when they got to the playoffs, Darnold didn't turn
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: the ball over.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: Three postseason games, no turnovers, right?
• 26:18
  Speaker 6: Right, but he still wasn't satisfied.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 26:21
  Speaker 6: That's what I like about him so much.
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: You talked to Donald about the Super Bowl the last
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: time they played the Patriots seven months and one day ago,
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: and he's ticked. He's still ticked it himself for missing throws.
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: We mentioned the Smith and Jigba improv play early in
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: the game that he overthrew that would have been a touchdown.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: He threw it behind a couple crossing routes.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: Early in the game.
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: Donald didn't want to be known and is right now
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: known as the quarterback who didn't lose the Super Bowl because.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: He didn't turn it over.
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: He wanted to light up the Patriots' defense, and he
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: didn't do it. And he saw a couple chances of
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: plays that he missed that he would normally make. He
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: is not at all satisfied with how his personal Super
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: Bowl went.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: Loved it, of course, for the team.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: But there's something stuck in his craw about how he
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: played the last time he played the Patriots.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: So tonight, don't turn the ball over.
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: Don't give New England a short field against the number
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: one ranked defense that I don't think Drake may in
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: this offense, especially without one of their top two running
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: backs in the lineup, can move down the field repeatedly
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: for touchdowns. So don't give the Patriots the short field
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: to score tonight. That's the key number one to the
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: game to me. The second key is the secondary issues.
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: We talked off the top of the show. I don't
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: think Nicky Manwari is playing. We know Ty Okada is
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: not playing. The Anthony Bell and Rodney Thomas, maybe both
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: of them coming up from the practice squad. You can
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: only bring two guys up from the practice squad. So
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: if they decide they need both safeties because they only
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: have one healthy one on the active roster right now,
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: then Trevon Diggs won't play tonight. He's on the practice
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: squad as well. And that whole other situation at third corner,
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: which means the trickle-down effect of that is that Mike
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: McDonald's going to have to trust Nehemiah Pritchett, who he
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: didn't trust enough at the beginning of training camp enough,
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: or they would have never signed Trevon Diggs as the
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: potential third cornerback. So look for D'Anthony Bell and or
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: Rodney Thomas to come up from the practice squad and
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: start next to Julian Love. But I would think that's
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: going to limit how much they run three safeties this
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: like they would if Nicky Manwari was on the field.
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: And if they don't run three safeties and if they
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: don't have Trevon Diggs active tonight because you need two
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: safeties brought up from the practice squad, I think that
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: means more three linebackers that we've been talking about all week.
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: Tyrese Knight on the field with Drake Thomas flanking Ernest Jones.
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: You're going to lose some in pass coverage. You're going
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: to gain in run stopping and potentially blitzing more linebackers
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: off the edge. It's going to be interesting schematically to
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: see how much 48 Tyrese Knight is on the field
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: tonight because that'll be the tell that McDonald's not going
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: to extra defensive backs as much as he wants to. Remember,
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: no coach in the league last year played five and
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: six defensive backs more than Mike McDonald, and his stud piece,
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: the key piece to doing that, Nicky Moore, he's not
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: going to be on the field tonight.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: It does not appear.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: And then the third key is what I mentioned about
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: Drake Mann's Patriots offense. The Patriots want to run the
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: ball because they don't want to be in third and eight,
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: third and 11, third and 12 that they were in
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: in the Super Bowl. They only ran it 18 times
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: in 67 offensive play calls in Super Bowl 60. Now,
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: of course, a lot of that is because they were
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: behind early in the game and stayed behind, but they
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: weren't behind by a lot because Seahawks and Darnold offense
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: had to settle for field goals so many times, five
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: of them from Jason Myers.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: But if Drake May is in third and 12 tonight,
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: look out.
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: The Seahawks pass rush, the tricks that Mike McDonnell will
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: have in pressures, Nicky McDonnell, won't even be in there.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: If he's not, they'll still bring Devin Witherspoon. They'll bring
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: Derek Hall off the edge with DeMarcus Lawrence. They'll bring
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: a pressure to affect Drake May like they did in
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: the Super Bowl. So the Patriots need to run the ball,
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: but they don't have Trevon Henderson, I mentioned he has
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: a sprained ankle. He's been declared out. It's Ramondre Stevenson
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: or Bust for New England in the run game tonight.
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: Can the Seahawks do what they did in the Super Bowl,
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: and that's take away the run and make Drake May
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: have to beat him in third and long situations? That,
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: to me, is when the Seahawks would control the game. 4-9, 4-5-1,
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: your keys to the game tonight. What do you think
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: the Seahawks have to do to be 1-0 after tonight's game?
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: And there'll be overreaction Thursday, tomorrow. Won't there be, Jessamyn,
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: no matter what happens tonight?
• 30:27
  Speaker 9: What?
• 30:28
  Speaker 6: To a football game? Overreaction?
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: We forget that the Seahawks lost their first game last year.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: Remember that?
• 30:35
  Speaker 7: Usually that's dedicated for Mondays. Yes, but now that we
• 30:39
  Speaker 7: get to do it on Thursday, that'll be fun. Yeah, no,
• 30:43
  Speaker 7: of course there's going to be. There's going to be
• 30:44
  Speaker 7: a complete overreaction. And I don't care.
• 30:48
  Speaker 5: It's fun.
• 30:48
  Speaker 6: You have passion for the game, so do I.
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: That'll be on tomorrow's show when we'll recap everything that
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: happened and have audio from the postgame. Coming up next,
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: you'll hear the entirety of our talk with Sam Darnold
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: this past weekend. On Sunday, all he said, including what
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: he thinks of Brian Fleury, the new offensive coordinator. Tonight's
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: his first game, a dice roll for the Seahawks to
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: take a former defensive coach who only became an offensive
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: coach in 2020, a tight ends coach at that, in
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: his first time ever being an offensive play caller tonight
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: for the Super Bowl champions. You'll hear from Sam Darnold next,
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: and then at 11 o'clock, top of the hour, the
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: Kozlis Press Conference as new owners of the Seahawks live
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: right across the street at Lumen Field. 11.35, Factor Fiction,
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: thanks to the Lucky Eagle Casino Resort. I'll have my
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: pick at 11.35. All that's coming up on 93.3 KJRFM.
• 31:51
  Speaker 6: Welcome back to the Greg Bell Show.
• 31:52
  Speaker 7: Jessamyn McIntyre here with you as Greg is running across
• 31:55
  Speaker 7: the street to meet in person.
• 31:57
  Speaker 6: With the new ownership group.
• 31:59
  Speaker 7: And one of the things we wanted you to hear
• 32:01
  Speaker 7: before we kick off this NFL season is what Sam Darnold,
• 32:06
  Speaker 7: our Super Bowl winning quarterback, had to say as he
• 32:09
  Speaker 7: joined the entire media yesterday and had some pretty honest
• 32:13
  Speaker 7: things to say.
• 32:15
  Speaker 12: It's good to see all you guys, man. It's been
• 32:17
  Speaker 12: a while. No, you know, it's a Great opportunity for us, obviously.
• 32:23
  Speaker 12: This is a really good football team coming in here
• 32:25
  Speaker 12: in New England. Really good defense, offense, good special teams, obviously,
• 32:30
  Speaker 12: and really good coaching staff. We got our work cut
• 32:33
  Speaker 12: out for us, but it's exciting, man. Exciting to have
• 32:37
  Speaker 12: football back and just ready to go.
• 32:40
  Speaker 11: What's different about.
• 32:41
  Speaker 13: Week one in terms of the improvising that's needed and
• 32:44
  Speaker 13: not knowing what to expect?
• 32:46
  Speaker 12: Yeah. You know, that that presents its own challenges for sure.
• 32:51
  Speaker 12: Being able to, you know, see, you know, it's a
• 32:55
  Speaker 12: similar defense obviously that we played our last game, but
• 32:58
  Speaker 12: you know, they could have some different wrinkles. So we
• 33:00
  Speaker 12: just got to be prepared on everything and, or for everything.
• 33:03
  Speaker 12: And then I think a big thing as well, this
• 33:06
  Speaker 12: game is going to be communication on the sideline, you know,
• 33:09
  Speaker 12: how we adjust to certain things that we see out there.
• 33:13
  Speaker 14: You told us in Nashville that you feel like offensively,
• 33:15
  Speaker 14: you guys still trying to figure out your identity.
• 33:19
  Speaker 11: Is that something that you don't really know until the
• 33:21
  Speaker 11: games begin? You don't really know what you do best?
• 33:23
  Speaker 12: Yeah, I think you kind of have an idea of
• 33:26
  Speaker 12: what you like to run and certain situations and down
• 33:29
  Speaker 12: and distances, all those things. But, yeah, you definitely get
• 33:33
  Speaker 12: a better feel for it when you get out there
• 33:34
  Speaker 12: in the game.
• 33:35
  Speaker 15: We've asked you about Brian Fleury kind of throughout since
• 33:38
  Speaker 15: he got here, but now that you're all the way
• 33:39
  Speaker 15: to week one, you've been working with him through a
• 33:41
  Speaker 15: whole camp. How do you feel like the offense is
• 33:43
  Speaker 15: coming together with any coordinator?
• 33:46
  Speaker 12: Yeah, you know, Fleury, I think, Just the communication that
• 33:49
  Speaker 12: he's had with not only myself but our entire group,
• 33:53
  Speaker 12: coming up here in front of the group and explaining
• 33:55
  Speaker 12: how we want to form our identity and that it's
• 33:59
  Speaker 12: never going to.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: Be set in stone.
• 34:01
  Speaker 12: We're always evolving, but we have our things that are non-negotiables,
• 34:06
  Speaker 12: how we play and the standard. That is our offensive line,
• 34:10
  Speaker 12: tight ends, running backs, receivers. We all have a standard
• 34:13
  Speaker 12: of how we want to play, and we need to
• 34:14
  Speaker 12: uphold that no matter what our scheme is. And I
• 34:16
  Speaker 12: think Brian's made himself very clear about that. And, you know,
• 34:19
  Speaker 12: that rings true with what a lot of our philosophies
• 34:23
  Speaker 12: are as players.
• 34:25
  Speaker 11: You talked about in Nashville that.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: That's hot. Thank you.
• 34:28
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 34:28
  Speaker 16: You've been talking about how to, you know, spend some
• 34:31
  Speaker 16: time with Fleury and kind of build that relationship.
• 34:34
  Speaker 11: Have you had a chance to do that? Is that
• 34:36
  Speaker 11: something you initiated?
• 34:37
  Speaker 16: Is that something he initiates?
• 34:38
  Speaker 11: How does that work?
• 34:39
  Speaker 12: Yeah, it goes both ways, right? I mean, like for me, like,
• 34:43
  Speaker 12: just talking about some of the things that I like
• 34:44
  Speaker 12: from last year or even years prior. So really myself
• 34:48
  Speaker 12: initiating the conversation of what we like to do as
• 34:52
  Speaker 12: an offense because he's been in San Francisco for so
• 34:55
  Speaker 12: many years, which is great. The last couple of years
• 34:59
  Speaker 12: when I wasn't there, they've done a ton of great things,
• 35:01
  Speaker 12: which I've harped on to you guys of how they
• 35:04
  Speaker 12: do things in the run game and then some of
• 35:05
  Speaker 12: the pass game things that they do. But just getting
• 35:09
  Speaker 12: with him on some of the things that we like
• 35:10
  Speaker 12: as a group to do in the pass game and
• 35:13
  Speaker 12: in the run game. So it's a collaboration for sure.
• 35:16
  Speaker 12: And at the end of the day, he has the
• 35:17
  Speaker 12: final say on what goes in and what doesn't.
• 35:20
  Speaker 11: You've described Brian as even keel in the past.
• 35:23
  Speaker 17: I'm curious how you've seen that kind of shown up
• 35:24
  Speaker 17: over the last few months, especially as the ramp up
• 35:26
  Speaker 17: towards his first game as offensive coordinator comes up.
• 35:30
  Speaker 12: Yeah, it's interesting, right? As you play these preseason games,
• 35:34
  Speaker 12: the schedule on a week-to-week basis, it changes a lot.
• 35:37
  Speaker 12: And you're trying to get guys... ready to play who
• 35:40
  Speaker 12: just got here two days ago. And so just the
• 35:44
  Speaker 12: amount of prep that we've gone through, like going through
• 35:46
  Speaker 12: a normal week, getting ready for this game against New England,
• 35:49
  Speaker 12: it's more, you can tell it's like more of not
• 35:53
  Speaker 12: only his comfort zone, but all of us as players,
• 35:56
  Speaker 12: it's our comfort zone to be able to get our
• 35:57
  Speaker 12: routine right and get, you know, the feel of a
• 36:01
  Speaker 12: normal week back. I think sometimes the preseason games can
• 36:05
  Speaker 12: cause a little stress and anxiety, especially for coaches as
• 36:07
  Speaker 12: they try to get a plan together for for some
• 36:09
  Speaker 12: of those guys. So for, for him, like just feeling
• 36:13
  Speaker 12: like every day we've come in so far this week, he's,
• 36:15
  Speaker 12: he's been great just in terms of, you know, the
• 36:17
  Speaker 12: way that he's presenting how clear the plan is so far.
• 36:20
  Speaker 12: So yeah, it's been great.
• 36:22
  Speaker 18: We've seen, we've seen Brian call plays from up in
• 36:25
  Speaker 18: the box and on the sideline in his preseason games.
• 36:28
  Speaker 18: Do you have a preference as a quarterback, whether you
• 36:30
  Speaker 18: like to have the play caller on the sideline with
• 36:32
  Speaker 18: you or upstairs? And would that be something that he
• 36:36
  Speaker 18: would maybe potentially ask you about to try to make
• 36:38
  Speaker 18: that decision?
• 36:39
  Speaker 12: Yeah, it's interesting. I feel like all coordinators have a
• 36:43
  Speaker 12: different preference. It's whatever he likes. I don't have a
• 36:46
  Speaker 12: preference personally. If he sees it better upstairs, go upstairs,
• 36:50
  Speaker 12: and then vice versa. If he sees it better on
• 36:53
  Speaker 12: the sideline, then it's great having him down there as well.
• 36:56
  Speaker 19: Leonard was saying yesterday he didn't feel like you've changed
• 36:59
  Speaker 19: at all from, say, this time last year, despite what
• 37:01
  Speaker 19: you've accomplished in the last year. And he said that's
• 37:04
  Speaker 19: a really good thing, that your approach to everything is
• 37:07
  Speaker 19: the same.
• 37:07
  Speaker 11: Is that kind of how you view it?
• 37:09
  Speaker 12: Yeah, I hope I'd not change. If I change, you
• 37:12
  Speaker 12: guys please tell me. No, but that's not only for myself,
• 37:17
  Speaker 12: but that's a lot of the guys in the locker room.
• 37:18
  Speaker 12: I feel like we have a short-term memory in terms
• 37:21
  Speaker 12: of what we've done in the past. It's about what
• 37:24
  Speaker 12: we can do today. to get ourselves ready for this game.
• 37:28
  Speaker 15: Even if you haven't changed, do you feel maybe better,
• 37:31
  Speaker 15: more comfortable going into the season that you're in the
• 37:33
  Speaker 15: same place for two years, a lot of the same teammates,
• 37:36
  Speaker 15: a lot of continuity and scheme, just there's a lot
• 37:38
  Speaker 15: of carryover versus you've been bouncing around a lot.
• 37:40
  Speaker 12: Yeah. I think, you know, as humans right naturally, like
• 37:44
  Speaker 12: we seek comfort a little bit. And I think for,
• 37:46
  Speaker 12: for myself, like that was a, that was a big
• 37:48
  Speaker 12: challenge this off season was okay. It's the first time
• 37:50
  Speaker 12: in a few years that I've stayed in one place.
• 37:52
  Speaker 12: Like how can I kind of, you know, push myself
• 37:56
  Speaker 12: a little bit more and challenge myself. Obviously, you know,
• 37:59
  Speaker 12: flurry coming in here with a couple of different wrinkles,
• 38:01
  Speaker 12: like really being able to study those things and study our,
• 38:05
  Speaker 12: you know, go back to the basics, like studying formations, concepts, motions,
• 38:08
  Speaker 12: all those things to, you know, to, to continue to
• 38:12
  Speaker 12: sharpen my sword. And so I think that's the biggest
• 38:14
  Speaker 12: thing as a player, you know, and as a human
• 38:16
  Speaker 12: in general, like you try to seek comfort sometimes. And
• 38:19
  Speaker 12: I think it's being able to find ways to continue
• 38:21
  Speaker 12: to challenge yourself, which, you know, allows you to continue
• 38:24
  Speaker 12: to grow.
• 38:26
  Speaker 16: You're a golfer as well as a football player, and
• 38:29
  Speaker 16: the sequencing in a golf swing, I'm curious, you can
• 38:32
  Speaker 16: get out of sequence there, you find it on the range.
• 38:34
  Speaker 16: When you have sequencing with your throwing motion, do you
• 38:37
  Speaker 16: find that that gets out of sync as well, and
• 38:39
  Speaker 16: do you have things to go back to to find it?
• 38:41
  Speaker 12: Yeah, it's a great question. I think one thing that
• 38:44
  Speaker 12: is a little bit different, and it's funny, I was
• 38:46
  Speaker 12: actually just talking to someone this morning about it, is golfers, especially,
• 38:52
  Speaker 12: it's like a set. thing kickers also with jmi like
• 38:57
  Speaker 12: it's a set routine and you have your own swing
• 38:59
  Speaker 12: like sometimes as a football player as a quarterback like
• 39:02
  Speaker 12: that sequencing might need to shorten up based on how
• 39:04
  Speaker 12: much time we have in the pocket or if my
• 39:06
  Speaker 12: feet if i have to move and my feet are
• 39:07
  Speaker 12: facing this way and i have to make a throw
• 39:09
  Speaker 12: this way like sometimes you got to rely on arm
• 39:12
  Speaker 12: strength or your agility to make a play and make
• 39:15
  Speaker 12: a throw so that would be the one difference but
• 39:18
  Speaker 12: you know sometimes just throwing it out there on the
• 39:20
  Speaker 12: practice field like i want to make sure i'm sequenced
• 39:23
  Speaker 12: up as much and make sure that everything's flowing and
• 39:27
  Speaker 12: that's the other thing too for doing it as long
• 39:28
  Speaker 12: as I have been like if I'm not sequenced up
• 39:31
  Speaker 12: the right way and my my hips and my shoulders
• 39:33
  Speaker 12: and torso aren't aligned you know in the right way
• 39:35
  Speaker 12: then I'll feel it you know whether it's in my
• 39:38
  Speaker 12: hips my shoulder so I know right away if I'm
• 39:41
  Speaker 12: not sequenced up and there's definitely ways that I can
• 39:44
  Speaker 12: fix that you know as I go on throughout the
• 39:46
  Speaker 12: day and even the next couple days.
• 39:48
  Speaker 16: Did you know that you had a high spin rate
• 39:50
  Speaker 16: before Hard Knocks made a big deal about it?
• 39:55
  Speaker 12: Just talking to someone about that as well. Yeah, I mean,
• 39:58
  Speaker 12: it's a high spin rate, but it's more of like
• 40:01
  Speaker 12: the efficiency of it.
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: You know, I.
• 40:06
  Speaker 12: Think I've always spun it.
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: You know, it's funny.
• 40:09
  Speaker 12: It's like people talk about spin, like all that dude
• 40:11
  Speaker 12: spins it when he lets it go. And you can
• 40:13
  Speaker 12: tell like he just has a natural throwing motion. Like
• 40:15
  Speaker 12: I've always kind of been able to do that since
• 40:17
  Speaker 12: like high school and middle school. And there's just a
• 40:20
  Speaker 12: lot of things that you try to tweak along the way,
• 40:23
  Speaker 12: you know, throughout your quarterback journey to continue to make
• 40:26
  Speaker 12: yourself more efficient. I would say one thing, too, is
• 40:28
  Speaker 12: in college, I really relied on it. Like I relied
• 40:31
  Speaker 12: on my arm to make a ton of throws. And
• 40:34
  Speaker 12: I had a coach in college who said, hey, one
• 40:35
  Speaker 12: day you're not going to be able to do that. Like,
• 40:37
  Speaker 12: you're going to play a long time, and you're not
• 40:39
  Speaker 12: always going to just be able to rely on your
• 40:41
  Speaker 12: arm to make throws. And so I think just hearing
• 40:44
  Speaker 12: that and getting my body into as many throws as
• 40:46
  Speaker 12: possible helps with that mindset.
• 40:48
  Speaker 10: Sam, the mental coach you turned to a couple years ago,
• 40:51
  Speaker 10: why was it at that point in your career you
• 40:54
  Speaker 10: did that?
• 40:54
  Speaker 12: Who got you to who or what? Yeah, well, I
• 40:57
  Speaker 12: had been kind of thinking about it, you know, and
• 41:00
  Speaker 12: I had been trying. To be honest, I'd tried mentally. some,
• 41:04
  Speaker 12: some different sports psychologists and it just didn't really click. Um,
• 41:07
  Speaker 12: you know, with him, it just clicked. Um, you know, he,
• 41:09
  Speaker 12: he was, you know, he just explained like kind of
• 41:12
  Speaker 12: the science of why our brain goes to a certain
• 41:14
  Speaker 12: place or, you know, and a lot of it is
• 41:17
  Speaker 12: to just protect ourselves, um, like the fighter, fight or
• 41:19
  Speaker 12: flight stuff. So I think for me, it was like
• 41:21
  Speaker 12: understanding the science of why my brain is going to
• 41:24
  Speaker 12: a certain place. And that allowed me to kind of, um, just,
• 41:28
  Speaker 12: I guess, use some hacks to be able to, you know,
• 41:32
  Speaker 12: trick myself into thinking that, you know, everything's fine.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: Is that a daily maintenance thing, or is that something
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: you second nature?
• 41:39
  Speaker 12: No, I've had to work on it, you know, still
• 41:42
  Speaker 12: working on it every day, and I'll get frustrated on
• 41:44
  Speaker 12: the field sometimes, especially in practice, you know, when we're
• 41:48
  Speaker 12: still trying to tweak things and figure it out, and
• 41:51
  Speaker 12: I'm always trying to get better mentally.
• 41:53
  Speaker 11: The Super Bowl, when you look back at that game,
• 41:55
  Speaker 11: what comes to mind?
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: Oh, man. I mean, I.
• 42:04
  Speaker 12: Think for me, like, it showed me what I needed
• 42:07
  Speaker 12: to work on, I would say. Like, I feel like
• 42:10
  Speaker 12: I didn't make as many throws as I should have.
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: So, yeah.
• 42:16
  Speaker 20: Sam, when you go from training camp install types of
• 42:19
  Speaker 20: practices to in-season game planning, what functionally changes for you?
• 42:23
  Speaker 20: Does the goals you're trying to get out of a
• 42:26
  Speaker 20: practice alter a little bit?
• 42:27
  Speaker 11: Like, how does that kind of shift if it does
• 42:30
  Speaker 11: at all?
• 42:31
  Speaker 12: Um, I think it remains kind of, it remains the
• 42:35
  Speaker 12: same for the most part. Um, I think when you're
• 42:37
  Speaker 12: trying to get certain looks from the defense and, and
• 42:40
  Speaker 12: understand what those looks are, um, sometimes it can, it
• 42:43
  Speaker 12: can feel curated. I think as a quarterback, I want
• 42:45
  Speaker 12: to try to not know what's coming from the defense.
• 42:48
  Speaker 12: Like I will in the game, you know, based on
• 42:50
  Speaker 12: certain looks, I might know, but, um, I think with
• 42:53
  Speaker 12: New England and a lot of the scheme that they do,
• 42:56
  Speaker 12: it can be tough to tell. So just, I guess,
• 42:59
  Speaker 12: urging the scout guys, and they do a great job
• 43:01
  Speaker 12: as well because our defense does it, but just urging
• 43:04
  Speaker 12: them to really not show us exactly what they're going
• 43:07
  Speaker 12: to be in pre-snap.
• 43:09
  Speaker 11: Did your Super Bowl ring survive being dropped?
• 43:12
  Speaker 5: It did.
• 43:13
  Speaker 11: It's pretty durable. What did you think of your portrayal
• 43:16
  Speaker 11: overall on Hard Knocks?
• 43:18
  Speaker 12: Yeah, I don't know. I didn't watch it, if I'm
• 43:21
  Speaker 12: being honest, but... My parents loved it, so I'm sure
• 43:25
  Speaker 12: it was great.
• 43:26
  Speaker 14: Going back to the ring ceremony, did you think that, like, oh,
• 43:29
  Speaker 14: my God, what was going through your mind.
• 43:32
  Speaker 11: When that happened?
• 43:34
  Speaker 12: Like, of course, of course this would happen to me,
• 43:36
  Speaker 12: you know, dropping the ring. But I will say, in
• 43:38
  Speaker 12: my defense, I guess this would be a good time
• 43:40
  Speaker 12: to do it. I opened the box, and the ring
• 43:43
  Speaker 12: was already kind of falling out. It wasn't like I
• 43:45
  Speaker 12: made the ring fall out of the box, you know
• 43:47
  Speaker 12: what I mean? I just wanted to clear that up,
• 43:50
  Speaker 12: you know, so. I had to say that because people
• 43:53
  Speaker 12: had been asking me the same exact question. Like, how
• 43:55
  Speaker 12: did the ring, how did you drop the ring? It's
• 43:56
  Speaker 12: so precious. And I was like, I just opened the
• 43:58
  Speaker 12: box and it fell out and I couldn't grab it.
• 44:01
  Speaker 21: Sam, what does running forward mean to you as you
• 44:05
  Speaker 21: guys try to move on from the.
• 44:07
  Speaker 11: Super Bowl, like you said?
• 44:09
  Speaker 12: Yeah, I would say, I mean, simply put, I would
• 44:12
  Speaker 12: say it's stacking days and just continuing. Like, today is
• 44:16
  Speaker 12: a great, you know, for us, we're thinking about it
• 44:19
  Speaker 12: like a Thursday. I know it's Sunday, but Just thinking
• 44:23
  Speaker 12: about it like a Thursday. What do I need to
• 44:25
  Speaker 12: attack today to get better on third downs and some
• 44:28
  Speaker 12: of the looks that our defense is going to give
• 44:29
  Speaker 12: us and own our stuff as well, be able to
• 44:33
  Speaker 12: own our plays and our operation. So I would say
• 44:38
  Speaker 12: that's it, though. It's just taking it one day at
• 44:39
  Speaker 12: a time.
• 44:40
  Speaker 6: There you go, straight from the quarterback's mouth.
• 44:42
  Speaker 7: And up next, you will get to meet the Kosla family,
• 44:45
  Speaker 7: the new ownership of the Seahawks team. You'll hear Greg
• 44:48
  Speaker 7: there as well. And this is the Greg Bell Show.
• 44:51
  Speaker 7: All of that coming up more, a lot more, on
• 44:54
  Speaker 7: 93.3 KJR.com and on 93.3 KJR FM.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: Now, from the Star Reynolds Sports Desk, your 93.3 KJR
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: FM Sports Headlines.
• 45:21
  Speaker 6: Good morning. Jessamyn McIntyre here.
• 45:23
  Speaker 7: These are headlines brought to you by Frostbrew Coors Light.
• 45:27
  Speaker 6: That is as cold as the Rockies.
• 45:30
  Speaker 7: It is NFL opening day right here at Lumen Field.
• 45:33
  Speaker 6: In your hometown, people.
• 45:35
  Speaker 7: Super Bowl champions face off against their foes once again today.
• 45:39
  Speaker 7: starting tonight at 5.20. This will be a national game,
• 45:43
  Speaker 7: so put your, I would say, boots on, but it's
• 45:47
  Speaker 7: going to be a pretty nice day. Just get your
• 45:49
  Speaker 7: flip-flops and hats and your voices ready to go and
• 45:53
  Speaker 7: shake that ground once again. The Seahawks' official game injury report, safety,
• 45:59
  Speaker 7: Ty Okada, he is out. He has a hamstring injury
• 46:03
  Speaker 7: and hasn't practiced all week, so we kind of saw
• 46:05
  Speaker 7: that coming. Nick Imanwari, still questionable, but Not exactly expected
• 46:10
  Speaker 7: to play. He still has yet to fully practice since
• 46:13
  Speaker 7: mid-June and has had arthroscopic ankle surgery in late July.
• 46:19
  Speaker 7: Wide receiver Torrey Horton still listed as questionable, but he
• 46:22
  Speaker 7: hasn't practiced since mid-August, so he has a leg issue.
• 46:26
  Speaker 7: Greg has not been told, or he's told that whatever
• 46:31
  Speaker 7: Torrey is going through is not related. to his surgery
• 46:34
  Speaker 7: in February where he had a metal rod put into
• 46:37
  Speaker 7: his lower leg to repair that cracked shin. And right now,
• 46:41
  Speaker 7: we are going to allow you to meet the new
• 46:44
  Speaker 7: owners of the Seahawks. And I know that everyone has
• 46:47
  Speaker 7: been waiting for this moment and wants to know what
• 46:50
  Speaker 7: they're all about.
• 46:51
  Speaker 6: So I'm going to bring you right to it.
• 47:17
  Speaker 22: Well, good morning, everybody. Dave, you want to open it
• 47:21
  Speaker 22: up to questions?
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 47:28
  Speaker 22: I think I want to first start with my wife.
• 47:32
  Speaker 22: We've been together for 55 years or so, almost.
• 47:39
  Speaker 23: So watch out.
• 47:40
  Speaker 22: We're here to stay. My son, Neil. We've been together
• 47:48
  Speaker 22: for 33 years, 32 years. My daughter, Nina. Nina's an
• 47:58
  Speaker 22: entrepreneur by herself. Two fashion brands she started, Form and Osu,
• 48:04
  Speaker 22: so feel free to talk to her later. And my
• 48:11
  Speaker 22: other daughter is feeding the baby. You'll meet the biggest,
• 48:15
  Speaker 22: newest 12. Fourth daughter. And our fourth daughter is just
• 48:22
  Speaker 22: landing from Amsterdam.
• 48:24
  Speaker 23: No, no, no, third daughter and a son.
• 48:28
  Speaker 22: Our fourth child, the third daughter. Nina's the eldest. Anu,
• 48:33
  Speaker 22: with the baby, is second. Our daughter, who's landing, is
• 48:39
  Speaker 22: the third. And she'll be here at the game. and
• 48:44
  Speaker 22: my son Neil is the youngest, the baby in the family.
• 48:47
  Speaker 22: So he's an entrepreneur, Anu mostly works in non-profit causes,
• 48:56
  Speaker 22: and our daughter who's learning from Amsterdam is in the
• 48:59
  Speaker 22: competitive equestrian, so she was competing and so she's back
• 49:05
  Speaker 22: here for the game.
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: Hello, Brian.
• 49:19
  Speaker 16: Emhauser with HawkBlogger. Welcome to Seattle, first of all. Excited
• 49:24
  Speaker 16: to be here.
• 49:24
  Speaker 22: Really excited.
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: Excited to have you.
• 49:26
  Speaker 16: So when the team was last sold in 97, Paul
• 49:29
  Speaker 16: Allen recognized that accessibility was important, made $ 10 tickets available,
• 49:34
  Speaker 16: and committed to have some percentage of tickets always at
• 49:37
  Speaker 16: the lowest average in the NFL. Since then, ticket prices
• 49:41
  Speaker 16: have gone up 1,100%. median household income is only up 125%.
• 49:44
  Speaker 16: I'm curious what your perspective is on keeping accessibility for
• 49:49
  Speaker 16: the average fan to keep the home field advantage what
• 49:51
  Speaker 16: it's been in Seattle.
• 49:53
  Speaker 22: So we do respect what Paul Allen and Jody did.
• 49:59
  Speaker 22: I suspect without going into specifics, our policies won't be
• 50:03
  Speaker 22: much different than whatever they are following done in conjunction
• 50:07
  Speaker 22: with management. So I don't expect we'll change a lot
• 50:11
  Speaker 22: from Paul's philosophy or Jody's philosophy.
• 50:19
  Speaker 24: Congratulations again, Chris Daniels from Como News in Seattle. The
• 50:24
  Speaker 24: question that has lingered for a lot of people through
• 50:27
  Speaker 24: the last few months with the change in ownership is
• 50:29
  Speaker 24: what your future plans are, not only for this building
• 50:33
  Speaker 24: that we're sitting in right now, Lumen Field, but for
• 50:35
  Speaker 24: the area around the stadium. As now the official owners
• 50:39
  Speaker 24: of the franchise, what can you say about the future
• 50:42
  Speaker 24: of Lumen Field and the stadium industry?
• 50:45
  Speaker 22: First, I'd say we are owners for five days. A
• 50:49
  Speaker 22: little early to formulate specific plans. The broad thing I
• 50:53
  Speaker 22: can say is I don't expect too many changes. So
• 50:58
  Speaker 22: our philosophy will probably be similar to what the Allens
• 51:03
  Speaker 22: did and rely a lot on management to recommend what
• 51:07
  Speaker 22: they want to do.
• 51:12
  Speaker 25: Hi, Bob Condotta with the Seattle Times. I understand you
• 51:16
  Speaker 25: guys were here for the playoff game against the 49ers
• 51:19
  Speaker 25: last year, and obviously, I guess, rooting for the 49ers
• 51:21
  Speaker 25: at the time. But I was just wondering if you
• 51:23
  Speaker 25: could tell me what you remember of that game and
• 51:26
  Speaker 25: your thoughts on kind of sitting in the stands for
• 51:28
  Speaker 25: that game.
• 51:29
  Speaker 22: Well, that game really brought home to us the power
• 51:34
  Speaker 22: of the 12 brand. Literally, how passionate a fan base
• 51:39
  Speaker 22: it is, I never realized how popular a brand the
• 51:42
  Speaker 22: 12s are. And so that's very exciting. I would say
• 51:47
  Speaker 22: that was the big takeaway, other than being on the
• 51:50
  Speaker 22: losing side of that. Thankfully now, being on the losing side,
• 51:55
  Speaker 22: we are excited for Seattle. And so I would say
• 51:59
  Speaker 22: the biggest impression was the Lumen Field as iconic venue,
• 52:04
  Speaker 22: the loudness, how exciting and energetic it was, and, of course,
• 52:09
  Speaker 22: the 12s.
• 52:11
  Speaker 9: I might just add, you know, my dad and I
• 52:12
  Speaker 9: came to that game, Bob, and we'd never been to
• 52:15
  Speaker 9: Lumen before. And I think, obviously, the Seahawks, you know,
• 52:21
  Speaker 9: had a very good game. And we're kind of sitting
• 52:24
  Speaker 9: there in the fourth quarter, and it was still so loud.
• 52:29
  Speaker 9: And I think kind of one of my reflections coming
• 52:33
  Speaker 9: out of that was like, I don't know that I've
• 52:35
  Speaker 9: ever been in a venue this loud and this passionate.
• 52:38
  Speaker 9: And it's a 30 point game in the fourth quarter.
• 52:41
  Speaker 9: And you see how special the fan base is. I
• 52:45
  Speaker 9: think we walked away going, Oh my God, like this
• 52:49
  Speaker 9: is a dip.
• 52:49
  Speaker 12: This is built different.
• 52:51
  Speaker 9: Um, and so that was kind of the first cue
• 52:53
  Speaker 9: that to us that, that this franchise, I think has
• 52:57
  Speaker 9: something really special in how it's connected to the community
• 53:00
  Speaker 9: and what the fan base is and how they show
• 53:02
  Speaker 9: up for games. And, ultimately how that helps the team
• 53:05
  Speaker 9: on the field.
• 53:07
  Speaker 5: Hello, I'm Brady Henderson from ESPN. Welcome.
• 53:10
  Speaker 14: So we know your respective titles. Can you help us
• 53:12
  Speaker 14: understand what that's going to mean? Who's in charge of
• 53:15
  Speaker 14: what that looks like on a day-to-day basis?
• 53:19
  Speaker 22: I would say the following. We are super close-knit family.
• 53:23
  Speaker 22: So if you want to know us, we're very close.
• 53:27
  Speaker 22: And we will probably operate relatively interchangeably as an office
• 53:32
  Speaker 22: of the chairman. and not have any specific things. Now
• 53:36
  Speaker 22: Nir is very passionate about education. She's had a nonprofit
• 53:41
  Speaker 22: in education for 20 years, which, by the way, serves
• 53:47
  Speaker 22: 30 to 40 million children worldwide every year. And millions
• 53:52
  Speaker 22: of students are using her AI tutor every single month.
• 53:59
  Speaker 22: She'll be more focused in the community efforts and some
• 54:03
  Speaker 22: of the foundation efforts for the Seahawks Foundation. Neil and
• 54:08
  Speaker 22: I will probably operate relatively interchangeably. We stay in close touch.
• 54:14
  Speaker 22: We talk every single day practically. We hang out a
• 54:19
  Speaker 22: lot together. So you'll see us operate. as if we
• 54:23
  Speaker 22: are one entity.
• 54:24
  Speaker 14: And one follow-up to that, will any of you or
• 54:27
  Speaker 14: all of you be stationed in Seattle or in this area?
• 54:30
  Speaker 22: We will be here often. We won't be moving to Seattle.
• 54:35
  Speaker 22: Just like we've been together for 55 years, we tend
• 54:38
  Speaker 22: to be pretty stable. We've been in the same house
• 54:40
  Speaker 22: since 1986. That's true. But we'll be here a lot.
• 54:51
  Speaker 23: Just so you know, we take commitment seriously.
• 54:59
  Speaker 26: Guys, Dave Mahler, KJR Seattle. First of all, welcome to town.
• 55:04
  Speaker 26: A couple questions.
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: What a great.
• 55:06
  Speaker 26: Weather welcome to us. It's always like this, by the way,
• 55:09
  Speaker 26: just so you know. Can you talk a little bit
• 55:11
  Speaker 26: more about your management style? You mentioned letting the people
• 55:15
  Speaker 26: in charge make recommendations. And then I think the question
• 55:18
  Speaker 26: everybody here wants to know, really the reason why we're
• 55:20
  Speaker 26: all here, you've had and you've seen the blue throwback uniforms.
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: Are we going to see the.
• 55:25
  Speaker 26: White throwback uniforms brought back at any point in time,
• 55:28
  Speaker 26: maybe this season?
• 55:30
  Speaker 9: You want to talk about management style?
• 55:32
  Speaker 7: Oh, no.
• 55:34
  Speaker 22: So to the first question, the management style, I think
• 55:39
  Speaker 22: our approach will be to have great management. We do
• 55:42
  Speaker 22: have great management. They got us to the Super Bowl.
• 55:45
  Speaker 22: And by the way, how lucky is it, how often
• 55:48
  Speaker 22: do you get to buy a team that just won
• 55:51
  Speaker 22: the Super Bowl? So the best thing we can do
• 55:54
  Speaker 22: is not mess with a lot, I think. But we
• 55:59
  Speaker 22: will be working closely with management. I don't think our
• 56:04
  Speaker 22: approach is going to be telling them what to do.
• 56:08
  Speaker 22: Our approach will be lots of discussions and then leave
• 56:11
  Speaker 22: it to management to decide whether they agree with us
• 56:15
  Speaker 22: or not. So I'm very much a fan of handing
• 56:20
  Speaker 22: them the baton and let them do their thing and
• 56:25
  Speaker 22: take responsibility for the results, which hopefully is another Super
• 56:29
  Speaker 22: Bowl very soon this year. I don't know if I
• 56:35
  Speaker 22: can tell you much more other than lots of dialogue,
• 56:38
  Speaker 22: lots of discussion, then let them make decisions.
• 56:42
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: The throwbacks.
• 56:46
  Speaker 9: Yeah, that's when I can, we will bring those back
• 56:48
  Speaker 9: for 2027, the white throwbacks.
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: Greg, welcome to the News Tribune.
• 56:58
  Speaker 3: Could all of you address how you'd like to incorporate
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: artificial intelligence in the football operations of the Seahawks?
• 57:05
  Speaker 22: Well, I don't know if there's a specific plan. We've
• 57:12
  Speaker 22: talked a bunch about it. I won't say there's a
• 57:17
  Speaker 22: specific plan on the field. That will be left to
• 57:20
  Speaker 22: Mike and John Schneider, Mike McDonald and John Schneider to do.
• 57:27
  Speaker 22: AI has a lot of role to play. I just
• 57:31
  Speaker 22: mentioned AI tutors in the community, so there's definitely uses
• 57:35
  Speaker 22: for that. And no, I don't think there's any labor
• 57:39
  Speaker 22: displacement going to happen with robots. I suspect AI will
• 57:45
  Speaker 22: be an important part of entertainment and enhancing the experience,
• 57:50
  Speaker 22: but no specific plans today.
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 57:55
  Speaker 9: I would just add that You know, I think one
• 57:57
  Speaker 9: of the great things about John and Mike is they're
• 57:59
  Speaker 9: always chasing edges. They're always looking for what they can
• 58:03
  Speaker 9: do to gain advantages. And if we can be helpful,
• 58:06
  Speaker 9: we'd love to bring those perspectives. But, you know, as
• 58:09
  Speaker 9: my dad said, I think it's how do we have discussions?
• 58:12
  Speaker 9: How do we push each other? And then they have
• 58:14
  Speaker 9: to make decisions about, we're not here to make decisions
• 58:18
  Speaker 9: about how AI is used in football. I think we're
• 58:21
  Speaker 9: here to have those conversations and hopefully bring some new ideas.
• 58:25
  Speaker 9: And that's kind of the extent of that.
• 58:27
  Speaker 22: Yeah, let me just elaborate on that a little more.
• 58:31
  Speaker 22: You always want to have lots of discussions, lots of ideas,
• 58:34
  Speaker 22: lots of debate. But then the people in charge of
• 58:38
  Speaker 22: executing should have the baton to make the decision. Because
• 58:42
  Speaker 22: if they haven't made the decision, they won't be as
• 58:45
  Speaker 22: committed to it. That's a very important management philosophy. The
• 58:49
  Speaker 22: person responsible for executing should buy into the decision, make
• 58:53
  Speaker 22: the decision after plenty of debate and ideas and Well,
• 59:08
  Speaker 22: they just won the Super Bowl. Of all the professional
• 59:08
  Speaker 22: sports franchises in the world, why did you choose to
• 59:09
  Speaker 22: buy the Seahawks? Well, they just won the Super Bowl.
• 59:12
  Speaker 22: We were very fortunate. You know, I've had lots of
• 59:15
  Speaker 22: connections to Seattle because of the tech community here. And
• 59:20
  Speaker 22: when it became available, we both got super excited about it,
• 59:26
  Speaker 22: I'd say.
• 59:29
  Speaker 9: It's the best sport in the world and it's the
• 59:31
  Speaker 9: best fan base in the sport and in the world.
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: Like, that simple.
• 59:37
  Speaker 23: Can I just add, because for me, most important is
• 59:44
  Speaker 23: to kind of bring the youth into the world they're
• 59:48
  Speaker 23: going to live in. And the best way to do
• 59:50
  Speaker 23: that is through education. Help them understand what they can do.
• 59:57
  Speaker 23: A lot of that What we built has been, and
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 23: by the way, we offer it free, so we can educate,
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 23: we can kind of help them be, if they truly
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 23: want to be in the sports, which they should, we
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 23: want them to be there with deeper understandings. So that's
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 23: my commitment to the youth of Seattle, to help them
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 23: get where they want to get through what we've built
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 23: with technology and now AI on top of that. So
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 23: lots of potentials.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 5: Corbin Smith, Emerald City Spectrum. My question's for Neil here.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 27: You've got kind of a unique perspective here, previously being
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 27: an intern, I believe, football operations with the 49ers. What
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 27: have the discussions been like for you getting to talk
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 27: to John Schneider and Mike McDonald, having that background, obviously,
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 27: with the game that a lot of times incoming owners
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 27: don't have?
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean, I think it helps a little bit,
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 9: but I would be really, careful about equating me spending
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 9: a summer working the 49ers front office with Mike and
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 9: John who, you know, know what they're talking about. Like,
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 9: I think maybe there's, we've been able to talk about
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 9: a few things that, that I saw or didn't see,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 9: but like, you know, it's a very short experience versus
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 9: what they have, which is a lifetime. So, you know,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 9: for me, I'm, I'm coming in with a mindset of like,
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 9: these are two of the brilliant minds when it comes
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 9: to football. And so, what can I learn from them?
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 9: I'm not really putting, that was 15 years ago. I mean,
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 9: there's a, John liked the story that the first day
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 9: on that internship, they sat me down and they made
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 9: me take the, what's the, the Wunderlich, is that what
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 9: it's called? Yeah, and then they put up my score
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 9: and said, here's all the other guys in the league.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 9: So you're like, that's about the extent of what I'm
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 9: bringing to this experience.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 22: I would say, for something like the Seahawks. We will
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 22: be very much analytical in the approach, but combining analytics
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 22: with passion is a pretty unique mix that I think
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 22: Seattle especially offers and the fan base especially offers. But
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 22: we are big fans of analytics.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 15: Hi, John Boyle from Seahawks.com, middle here.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 2: For Niru, just wanted to get your thoughts.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 23: Can I see you?
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: In the middle.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 22: Okay.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: In the, okay, there.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 15: In the role of the president of the Charitable Foundation,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 15: what do you see the Seahawks' role in the community
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 15: and how you'd like that to look?
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 23: Oh, that's an excellent question. Because sports people are great
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 23: role models for youth. So I was really happy to
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 23: see the focus of the foundation being on the youth.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 23: You know, I think we forget that today's youth is
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 23: being told, oh, there are going to be no jobs
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 23: for you. There's going to be no this, no that,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 23: all that negativity. I want to change that dialogue. I
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 23: want to show youth, and we can use the very
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 23: names that youth really cherishes. So I want to put
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 23: them in front. I want to tell them, look, you
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 23: can be that.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 22: So there's lots of stuff.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 23: I don't know what's going to happen. I need to
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 23: talk to the foundation people. but there's lots of potential,
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 23: and they're already doing some stuff. So we're going to
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 23: have to focus on what needs to be the main
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 23: goal and to kind of come up with solutions. But
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 23: youth definitely will use the Seahawks as models for them
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 23: to learn from, the hard work, the commitment, and perseverance.
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 23: Those are what I'm looking for.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 17: Here in the back, Andrew Destin with The Athletic. Question,
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 17: if you're even known to two-parter, first would be, you've
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 17: been very vocal on social media since taking over the team,
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 17: interacting with fans. I'm curious, how important will that be
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 17: for you moving forward? And second, your jacket and shoes,
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 17: I understand there's a story behind that. Curious what you
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 17: could tell us here.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 22: I am on and off social media. I don't always engage,
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 22: but I am trying.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 5: To be approachable.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 22: Social media is an interesting beast because the two fringes respond.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 22: And so you have to be very careful when you respond,
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 22: when you don't. You want to speak to the bulk
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 22: of the people, not the extremes. I will continue to
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 22: be active. I'm not spending an hour a day on
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 22: social media. It's mostly on weekends. But I will continue
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 22: to engage and continue to speak out on important issues.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 22: I have a very direct style, so you'll continue to
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 22: see that. You won't see a lot of hypocritical politeness
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 22: from me. I prefer brutal honesty, calling people when they
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 22: need to be called out or complimenting people when they
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 22: need to be complimented, so all sides. The shoes are
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 22: a funny story, and somebody asked about AI. So last
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 22: week I said, I'd like something special for this event.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 22: And I got online and I said to ChatGPD, design
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 22: me a shoe and a logo. The logo I tweeted.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 22: The shoe, which I'm wearing right now, I said, design
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 22: it to me. I designed this really nice design. You
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 22: can judge for yourself, but I liked it. And I said,
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 22: how can I get it made in four days? And
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 22: it found me a place in Italy that would make
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 22: it in four days. So ChatGPD designed it, found the
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 22: place that could make it, and we arranged to get
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 22: the shoes, which is quite a miracle, but I'm excited
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 22: about that. And I'm excited about the jacket.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 2: It looks great.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 22: Maybe I'll model it for you folks.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 7: Again, this is the closer conference as the family is
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 7: being introduced as the new owners of the Seahawks.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 22: I love the idea of 1976. I love the idea
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 22: of legacy. As you might guess, this history matters a lot.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 22: The Nordstroms first and then the Allens did an amazing
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 22: job of building a loyal community, and hopefully we can
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 22: be good stewards and match up with their achievements there.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 22: And happy to show you the logo and the shoes
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 22: and the colors.
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 23: You know, I just want to add one last bit
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 23: to the question, the gentleman who asked me the question.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 23: I am here to bring AI tutoring. so that every
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 23: kid in Seattle can get a tutor, personal tutor. So
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 23: it'll be free. I'm serious about that because we found
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 23: it really helps because we built a vertical for students
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 23: so the education can be individualized, whether they want to
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 23: be a Seahawk player in the future or they want
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 23: to be a musician, they want to be a physician,
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 23: whatever that might be. I'd like to bring that to Seattle.
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 22: So one of the unique parts and what AI uniquely enables,
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 22: if a kid say they're interested in music, every lesson
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 22: can be taught in the context of musical instruments. If
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 22: they say they're interested in football or baseball, lessons can
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 22: change dynamically to their interests. It's pretty amazing to watch
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 22: how much more engaging it becomes for kids when they
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 22: do this. There's also, of course, I know probably not
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 22: a lot of people covering education here, but an amazing
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 22: opportunity to save a lot of money on paying publishers. 30,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 22: 40 million students, like I said, use textbooks composed on
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 22: the CK12 website that are custom for that teacher.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 5: A child.
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 22: I would suspect hundreds of millions of dollars are spent
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 22: on textbooks in the state and in the area. And
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 22: that's all money that can go into a kitty that
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 22: hopefully can be, I'll leave it to the school board
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 22: and the teachers to discuss how to use it.
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 28: Mazvir Amara with the CascadiaSports.net. And since player decisions have
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 28: to go through the family, I'm wondering for you all,
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 28: what are those traits that make up a Seahawk player
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 28: on and off the field?
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 6: I just think it's It's too early.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 9: We don't, you know, like, I think that's John and
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 9: Mike stuff.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 5: Got it.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 9: Like, you know, I think, I don't know if you want.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 22: Look, the most important goal here is winning. Let's be clear.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 22: and winning for Seattle. Every player has their own priorities,
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 22: and I don't think the organization itself will dictate priorities.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 22: Some will be left, some will be extreme left, some
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 22: will be right, some will be extreme right, and I
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 22: think every player has to have their own priorities and values.
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 22: I do think as an organization, it should have strong values.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 22: I've gotten in trouble often for sticking with values, but
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 22: it's part of the thing. So I hope we set
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 22: a culture of strong values in the organization. I would
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 22: definitely like to recommend that to management. Be very, very
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 22: clear on values. What do we believe in?
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 29: Tim Booth from the Seattle Times, right here. I'm wondering
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 29: if you could walk through the process of how you
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 29: brought on your minority investors and what kind of relationships
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 29: you might have had with them before they decided to
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 29: join your investment.
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 22: Well, some I've known for a while. Samir, are you here?
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 22: We worked together for 20-some years in our firm. We
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 22: co-founded it together, so... That one's easy. Others I've known
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 22: from the tech community. And then there's others. Jesse, are
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 22: you here?
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 2: Way back there.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 22: Say hello to Jesse. We met in the process. So
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 22: there's a wide range. And we wanted some people from Seattle.
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 22: So there's a couple of people in the team from Seattle.
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 22: And a couple of names that aren't disclosed because they
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 22: didn't want to be public about it. So I would
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 22: say one of the things the NFL didn't give is
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 22: a lot of time. So we had to put together
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 22: this thing, as Roger Goodell said, for the owners meeting
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 22: in August. when originally the plan was to get it
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 22: done in the owners meeting in October. So we did,
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 22: it was a rush process, but it turned out beautifully.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 22: And I think we are very, very happy with the
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 22: group we put together.
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 9: And I might just add, because I probably spent a
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 9: lot more time going through and meeting with just hundreds
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 9: of people, as you might expect, like everybody wants to
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 9: be a part of the NFL. And I think the
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 9: group that we, settled on have a lot of shared
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 9: values in terms of being passionate about football, being passionate
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 9: about this team and this region. Um, and generally I
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 9: think what you'll find, like many of them are here
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 9: beyond the ones that my dad called out, they're all
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 9: pretty humble and pretty approachable. And I think that's unique
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 9: when you're talking about, um, people who have the capacity
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 9: to invest in things like this, where, you know, They
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 9: understand they're part of a group. They understand they're part
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 9: of an organization with a set of values that are
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 9: about being a group and not kind of about any
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 9: one person. And so I think you go into VMAC
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 9: and it's the team, the team, the team. And I
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 9: think we really select it for people who have that
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 9: same kind of mindset.
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 12: And it comes through in.
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 9: The process very, very clearly when you spend time with
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 9: people whether they're about themselves or about the team.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 13: Jen Mueller with the Seahawks broadcast team. Neil, you were
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 13: talking about values. When it comes to the characteristics that
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 13: you wanted to align with all of the other business
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 13: interests that you've had, what were you looking for in
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 13: the Seahawks? What did you find that aligned with what
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 13: you believe is a good organization?
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 22: Look, most of my business interests are my venture firms.
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 22: And there's a video on what the venture firm does. Dave,
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 22: have you shared it? We'll be happy to share a
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 22: video of what we invest in. Almost all of it
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 22: is technology-based, impactful investments. So whether it's a cure for
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 22: cancer or better transportation, a lot in climate, a lot
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 22: in AI, a lot in technology, national defense, I'd say
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 22: a wide range. Public transit is one of my favorites.
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 22: I do think there's a very different approach to public
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 22: transit that's possible I won't go into here. So look
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 22: at the video, and then I'm happy to talk about
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 22: any of the 150 or so investments in that video.
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 22: Each one is something I'm passionate about doing. And that
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 22: will come across. I would say we are one of
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 22: the few firms where impact is probably as important as
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 22: investment returns. I like to say my business goal is
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 22: to have good enough investment returns so we can keep
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 22: getting licensed to do the impact, and it's very fun.
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 22: It's all breakthrough technology, rocket space, Mach 5 aircraft.
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 2: You name it.
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 5: Wide, wide range.
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 22: Neil himself works on AI primary care doctors, which really
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 22: should be free for everybody in the country eventually and
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 22: will happen. So wide range of impactful things in a
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 22: number of areas, all based on technology. But I don't
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 22: think it intersects with football in any major way. Football
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 22: is a passion. Neil and I, I fell in love
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 22: a long time ago with the NFL, and Neil and
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 22: I have been football fans for a very long time.
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 5: So.
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 21: Yeah, I had two of them here, if that's okay.
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 21: Mike Sando from The Athletic, same house since 2001. If
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 21: you wanted to trade, I'm sure we could work something out.
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 21: I would like each of you to answer the question,
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 21: What is it about owning a team that you think
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 21: will be fulfilling? I say that because I think we
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 21: can learn a lot about owners. They're all different in
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 21: what they get out of it, of owning a team.
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 21: Do you have an idea what makes it exciting to you?
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 21: Because you could all officially buy tickets and be a
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 21: fan of a team, but what is it about the
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 21: actual owning?
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 22: Yeah, let me put it this way. As a family,
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 22: one you will find, we are very approachable. Nothing fancy.
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 22: We don't like fancy stuff. I would almost say I'm...
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 22: He got his.
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 2: Jacket shipped from Italy.
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 25: What are we talking about here?
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 22: So we're a very, very close family. And I do
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 22: think a team like the Seahawks can be an extension
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 22: of the family. So if you ask me three or
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 22: four years from now what I hope to achieve, the
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 22: team operates like a family. And it's an extension of
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 22: the family, dramatically improves the quality of life if you have...
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 22: an extended family that truly cares. So that's what I
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 22: hope we can get to over the next couple of years,
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 22: is operate like an extended family.
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 2: Very good.
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 21: The last one was, what type of physical presence do
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 21: you anticipate having in the building, just as an owner?
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 22: I suspect we'll be here a fair amount. We haven't
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 22: laid out a schedule. We don't want to get in
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 22: anybody's way, per se. But be here enough where we
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 22: are available always.
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 2: Dave, I lied.
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 7: You've been listening to the Cosa family as they are
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 7: being introduced as the new owners of the Seahawks.
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 6: But you know what time it is?
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 2: We're set to go. Glad you're with us.
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: It's your shot at our weekly $ 1, 000 and the $ 10, 000
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: grand prize.
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 4: It's Fact or Fiction.
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: Proudly presented by Lucky Eagle Casino and Hotel, where every
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: day feels lucky.
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 2: Fact or Fiction is on. Sports Radio 93.3, KJR-FM.
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 7: Well, my friends, Greg Bell is still at the Coastal
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 7: Family Press Conference, but I wouldn't rob you of something
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 7: like this because.
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 6: I already have his pick.
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 5: And we are.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 7: Obviously going college football, as you can tell by the music.
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 6: So Greg is choosing.
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 7: Ohio State one and a half up versus Texas.
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 6: I think that's a great pick.
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 7: I saw that Ashley picked Ohio State versus Texas. She
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 7: took the under at 48 and a half. And I
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 7: think that's a bold pick, but I like it. But
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 7: Greg is taking Ohio State plus one and a half
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 7: against Texas. If you think that is fact, text in
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 7: fact right now, 49451. If you do not agree with Greg,
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 7: which I would disagree with you with, but you all
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 7: have your opinions, text in fiction to 49451. Right now,
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 7: your chance at $ 1, 000 and.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 7: A chance at $ 10, 000 at the end of the season.
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 6: Greg will be back with us shortly.
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 7: And I hope you enjoyed getting to meet the new
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 7: owners of the Seahawks. Again, just remember that window is
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 7: open right now. Fact, Ohio State, one and a half.
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 7: Getting one and a half versus Texas. Or fiction, if
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 7: you think that Texas is going to romp them. Well,
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 7: or just win by two. Anyway, my name is Jessamyn McIntyre.
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 7: This is The Greg Bell Show, and we will be
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 7: right back after this.
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 22: Welcome back to.
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 6: The Greg Bell Show. Jessamyn McIntyre here.
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 7: Greg is double dutying today as he is just returning
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 7: from the Coastal Press Conference as we met the new
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 7: owners of the Seahawks.
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 6: And Ian Furness is with me right now. Ian, what
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 6: was your first impression?
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 2: I didn't hear it. Okay.
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 5: I was busy getting ready for my show. I did
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 5: not get a chance to hear it, so my apologies.
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 6: I can give you my impressions. I thought that they
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 6: were smart.
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 7: I think that Neil is definitely going to be the
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 7: most involved from a football standpoint.
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 6: The young son, he's 33, I believe. He's young. And, um,
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 6: he was the most football involved.
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 7: And what I liked the most that I heard from
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 7: the Colsa family is that they're going to let the
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 7: football people do the football things. Um, and hand the
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 7: baton is a phrase that was used. And I'm wondering
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 7: what you think about that phrase.
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 5: Well, I, I, I just think it's a great unknown.
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 5: You know, time's going to tell like what these guys
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 5: are all about as owners. Um, Until they prove otherwise,
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 5: we give them the benefit of the doubt and say, hey,
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 5: let's move forward. You just would have to be foolish
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 5: to mess with anything on the football side of things.
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 5: But we saw that before because Chuck Knox and Mike
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 5: McCormick were doing just fine here in Seattle back when
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 5: Ken Baring bought the team from the Nordstrom family. And
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 5: they came in and torpedoed everything. Now, they had not
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 5: won a Super Bowl. McCormick was the GM and Chuck
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 5: was the coach, but They did not win a Super Bowl,
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 5: but they came in and brought their own people in,
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 5: all Raiders-related or a player agent of Mike Blatt and
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 5: what have you that ended up being charged with murder.
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 5: So it was, you know, as a GM. So, yeah,
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 5: the whole thing was a mess. But I think these
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 5: folks seem a lot smarter from everything they've seen before today,
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 5: what they've built up, and why would you mess with success?
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 5: John Schneider's the best GM in the NFL and has
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 5: been since 2010 when he first got the job. built
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 5: two super bowl champions from scratch, hired a coach in
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 5: Mike McDonald. That's sensational. Uh, made the decision with Jody
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 5: Allen to let go of a coach that had won
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 5: a super bowl. I mean, it hasn't had perfect drafts.
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 5: Nobody has, I know there was criticism of him for
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 5: a while, but you, you leave that side alone. Um,
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 5: you know, I guess, you know, the one thing I'd
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 5: like to see, we haven't talked about it a lot.
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 5: Opportunity comes calling, but Schneider lost, has lost a few
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 5: of his top guys over the years. Um, If you
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 5: are going to invest more in the product, and I'm
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 5: not talking salaries because everyone spends at a cap, let's
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 5: make sure you retain all John's guys. Now, if a
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 5: guy gets a job as a GM like Nolan Tinsley did,
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 5: that's one thing, but let's retain these guys. Invest there.
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 5: I've said this a number of times. I'll say it again.
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 5: I'm sure every business has places you can improve upon
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 5: and you can do better with, but Even the business
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 5: side of the Seahawks, to me, is run at a
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 5: very high level.
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 7: Agreed.
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 5: And now it's the NFL, and people say, well, you
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 5: know how hard. No, it's still pro sports. You have
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 5: your challenges. You've got a lot of things you've got
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 5: to do. I hope that Chuck Arnold and his staff
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 5: are given the same opportunities that the football staff is
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 5: probably going to be. And it's just basically a turnkey operation.
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 5: They come in and oversee things. But, yeah, let's go.
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 5: It's a hell of a start.
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 7: Well, that's exactly the sentiment that I got from listening
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 7: to the press conference, which we played the majority of,
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 7: is that they want to learn. You know, Neil had
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 7: talked about how he had.
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 6: spent so much time.
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 7: He took the Wunderlich. He did all these different things.
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 7: He's been visiting quite a bit and is learning things
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 7: from their level, but they seem open to learning and
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 7: they're not going to come in with their big ideas
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 7: and try to force them in.
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 6: They want to learn as well and grow with the team.
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 5: We obviously in Seattle have a little bit of PTSD
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 5: in a sense with ownership, with bearing and then of
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 5: course Howard Schultz and Clayton Bennett so I understand there'll
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 5: be some trepidation and some nervousness as far as fans
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 5: are concerned but you know to me that's not for
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 5: today that's something we worry about if at all down
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 5: the road today is about kicking this thing off defending
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 5: the title getting going it's just weird on a Wednesday
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 5: I'm Looking across the street, T-Mobile Park. Gates are open.
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 5: People are flocking in there. Seahawks fans everywhere. I mean,
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 5: the vibe down here is awesome, as it normally is
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 5: on a game day with one game. Now we have two.
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 5: So today, to me, is about that. Today's not about
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 5: worrying about what the Coastal family is. I'm glad they
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 5: got introduced today. I'm sure Jody's going to raise a flag.
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 5: Did they even mention that? Did they talk about that
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 5: at all?
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 6: They didn't.
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 5: Yeah, Jody's probably going to raise a flag, say goodbye
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 5: to her, and thank you to her as well. And
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 5: then start the title defense. Start the title defense.
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 6: Yeah, let's go. I mean, we're the hunted now, right?
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 5: Well, it happened once before, and they finished off a
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 5: nice little season, winning the division again and getting that
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 5: home field advantage. We all know what happened in the
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 5: Super Bowl, obviously. But, yeah, no, they've, you know, but
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 5: different team, different group of people, different everything. But it's
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 5: really going to be cool tonight. I'm just looking around here, Jess.
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 5: I mean, obviously the baseball game comes into play, but
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 5: I'm sitting next to some folks here that they're here
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 5: already for the Seahawks game at 520.
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 2: And what is it? 1153 AM.
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 5: And then I'd go to the Mariner game. They're like,
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 5: we're just here. We're going to walk around. We're going
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 5: to take it all in.
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 6: They're going to get it spicy.
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 5: Yeah. You know, when Soto's, Soto's has, has opened some
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 5: stuff up. That's more stuff, more stuff to do. We
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 5: got the Occidental beer hall down the hall. We got
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 5: Jimmy's on first year, which if you're out and about,
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 5: we can tell you that there are a couple of
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 5: open seats. They won't, they won't last long.
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 6: Oh no, they will not. It is going to pack
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 6: up there.
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 5: But this place will be packed. Obviously every place is
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 5: going to be packed and, The fact is you're not
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 5: walking around in the rain. It's beautiful weather, and we're
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 5: going to showcase Seattle one more time here on national TV,
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 5: and it's going to be awesome.
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 6: It's going to be amazing, and it won't be the
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 6: last time. That's for sure. What do you got coming up?
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 5: Busy show, as you would expect, on a Wednesday. Our
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 5: normal Wednesday visit with Stuart Mandel. We'll get to that
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 5: at 1.20 today. Man, college football is something else. All
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 5: kinds of stuff going on, as we all know, with
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 5: the Michigan game. We'll talk about the Apple Cup with him.
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 5: I'm going to ask a little bit about DeMond Williams, too.
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 5: I know there's a lot of criticism of him and
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 5: that offensive line for Washington. Big games this weekend, so
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 5: we'll get to all that with Stu Mandel coming up
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 5: at 1.20. 2 o'clock, Corbin Smith, who was over at
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 5: the press conference as well, and now part of the
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 5: IHART family. We'll talk about that a little bit.
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 5: Corbin Smith, Emerald City Spectrum is going to pop by
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 5: and sit down with us as well. And so we'll
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 5: do that coming up at 2 o'clock. And then in
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 5: the 1 o'clock hour, 1.20, our man Greg Cosell breaks
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 5: down Sam Darnold. And the game tonight with the New
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 5: England Patriots National Football League team as we kick off
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 5: the season. So we've got a lot coming up today,
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 5: as you would expect.
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 6: That sounds fantastic.
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 7: Again, Ian Furness coming up next. This is Jessamyn McIntyre
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 7: with the Greg Bell Show.
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 6: And thank you, Ian. You have a great show. And
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 6: keep on listening. Here we go. Countdown to kickoff.