Bob Whitsitt 2000 Speech/Poem

Then President & General Manager, Portland Trailblazers
President, Seattle Seahawks

2005--

Whitsitt fired as Seahawks president

NFL.com wire reports

SEATTLE (Jan. 14, 2005) -- Bob Whitsitt was fired by the Seahawks as president of football operations on the same day Green Bay hired Seattle vice president Ted Thompson as general manager.

"I decided to take a change of direction and bring in somebody with a deep background in football to run the football side of the organization," Seahawks owner Paul Allen said. "I didn't take it lightly at all, but felt it's what is needed for the franchise."

Whitsitt served as the Seahawks' president for eight years and helped negotiate the purchase and development of Qwest Field and the hiring of Mike Holmgren as head coach.

Whitsitt is the former president and general manager of the Portland Trail Blazers, which Allen also owns.

Whitsitt currently is recovering from colon surgery to remove a growth.

Seattle went 9-7 and won the NFC West this season, then lost to St. Louis in the first round of the playoffs.

(abbreviated speech)

May 14, 2000

Thank you, Chancellor George, for inviting me to speak today!

This is the first time I've been invited back into the state since I hired Mike Holmgren away from the Packers.

We led the NBA. We had the best record in the league (63-19). We won the Pacific Division Championship for the first time ever. The year before we had won 55 games, but we lost in the conference finals in game seven to Charles Barkley and the Phoenix Suns. And, we were the favorite to win the NBA championship. My two young superstars that I drafted back then were the keys to our team, but they were still pretty young guys named Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp. Well, Gary had a distant cousin, a fellow named Walter Peyton. As you know “Sweetness” played for the Chicago Bears and has recently past away, (he played on a Super Bowl championship team). So we called Walter up and had him come out and spend some time with our team before the playoffs started in ‘94. It was kind of ironic for me because Walter got our team together and he spent the whole time together talking about “this group of people."

“You need to trust each other as players. You are playing for yourselves. A lot of people will follow you when you are having success, but you need to be together. There will be a lot of adversity. It's difficult to win a championship. There's a lot of pressure. There's a lot of media scrutiny. There's a lot of fragile psyches. Your confidence comes and goes.” Walter did this beautiful speech. It took away a lot of those memories because that's really what it's all about. It's about working together and trying to accomplish something together. The interesting thing is that we won the first two games in the first round quite easily. We went on to lose the next three games and we lost in the first round of the playoffs.

The next day the owner called me into the office. He wanted me to fire the coach. I told him that I didn't agree with that – it wouldn't be a good idea. We talked again the next day. He wanted the same thing done. I got him to agree to talk again in about a week when the emotions calmed down.

Monday, I went into my office and it was cleaned out. I had the best year of my life – the best record ever; we had made the most money ever; we sold out the building every day. I was the Executive of the Year and I didn't have a job!

So, that was kind of humbling for me to learn that even when you think you're on top, or it's going good, don't get too high when things are going good for you. And try not to get too low when you think the world's going to end tomorrow because it's not going to end. You are going to be just fine. I did land on my feet. Obviously I have a job now where I work for a wonderful guy named Paul Allen where we are involved in a lot of wonderful things. I keep doing this job because I have the passion for it. The day I don't have that excitement or the energy, “I'll hang it up.”

I'd like to just close here and read half a poem to you. The poem is called, “Kindly Unhitch that Star, Buddy.” It's by Ogden Nash. I'm going to pick it up, about half way through.

Indeed, everybody wants to be a wow,
But not everybody knows exactly how.
Some people think they will eventually wear diamonds instead of rhinestones.

Only by everlastingly keeping their noses to their grindstones
And other people think they will be able to put in more time at Palm Beach and the Ritz.

By not paying too much attention to attendance at the office,
But rather in being brilliant by starts and fits.
Some people after a full day's work sit up all night getting a college education by correspondence,
While others seem to think they'll get just as far by devoting their evenings to the study of the difference in temperament between brunettance and blondance.
Some stake their all on luck,
And others put their faith in their ability to pass the buck.
In short, the world is filled with people trying to achieve success,
And half of them think they'll get it by saying no and half of them by
saying yes.

And if all the ones who say no said yes, and vice versa,
Such is the fate of humanity that 99% of them still wouldn't be any
better off than they were before,
Which perhaps is just as well because if everybody was a
success nobody could be contemptuous of anybody else and
everybody would start in all over again trying to be a bigger success
than everybody else so they would have Somebody to be
contemptuous of and so on forevermore,
Because when people start hitching their wagons to a star,
That's the way they are.

I want to congratulate all the graduates, and please kiss somebody tonight.

Thank you.