I love what he did with the hawks and how he mostly represented the organization.
I think he always had that little something off in his mentality that only got worse as he got more successful and more insulated
He lost his mental coach as well, which I think helped him - the fact he had all these components and pieces in his team was probably an indicator that he was operating on a shaky platform
Somewhere the conversation turned from the team to team Russ
I didn't like how he'd this his line under the bus, openly wish for more offensive minded coaching and praising guys like Sean Payton and having so much dialogue about his legacy
He moved from just being happy to lead a team to great things, to needing it to happen in a way that showed his value and built his resume - he was insecure and listened to the noise and bought into it
After his mini-coup didn't work, he forced his way out and got absolutely everything he wanted
The whole deal
Then quickly learned how good he had it in Seattle and how no other fan base would be more supportive
There is a big difference from coming in as a plucky 3rd round pick that earned a starting gig and led a team to its first championship and having a team trade a fair amount of assets for you, give you a giant contact and have you come into a city where they've watched a pair of HOF QBs win titles with a media and fan base that has expectations and will not be forgiving
He got everything he wanted and lost everything he had
It's a sad way to go out, but he did it and Seattle ended up better for it in the long term
Denver ended up better for letting him go as well
The Giants found a young talented QB to take a risk on and the Steelers figured if they want to go the old QB route, they might as well get one that has won an MVP
Raiders would rather have Geno, which cost Pete a job again and the Jets went for Geno ahead of him as well
Even referring to this as a pause to his playing career is sad.
It's all just sad
Should find that preseason game against KC when he won the job and remember all that excitement and promise