There’s a new sheriff in Seattle.
On Wednesday, the NFL’s owners approved the purchase of the Seahawks by a group led by Vinod Khosla. The vote was unanimous, and the price is a record at $9.612 billion.
The sale comes nearly eight years after the passing of Paul Allen, who bought the team in 1997 for $194 million. His sister, Jody, managed the team on behalf of his estate.
The team went on the market after the Super Bowl. It came after the Wall Street Journal reported that the Seahawks had been fined $5 million for noncompliance with ownership requirements. The NFL insisted no fine was imposed.
The truth was that the NFL deferred the fine in exchange for a commitment that the team would be promptly sold after the Super Bowl.
While the deal has not officially closed, it’s just a matter of dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.
The Seahawks commence the regular season in two weeks, hosting the Patriots on the night the franchise hangs its second banner.
Thirteen days ago, the Seahawks agreed to sign cornerback Terrion Arnold to a contract. The contract still hasn’t been signed.
And it continues to seem that the contract never will be signed.
The team hasn’t said much lately. The latest episode of Hard Knocks perhaps contains a clue.
Last week, Hard Knocks devoted plenty of time to the agreement to sign Arnold. This week, there was only a single passing reference to Arnold having a workout (not a deal) with the team in connection with the decision to sign cornerback Trevon Diggs.
Some think the Seahawks will officially sign Arnold after the preseason, since the original plan was to have him practice and play in preseason games. But with Arnold destined for paid leave, why pay him to not play when he could be signed later — if/when he emerges from eight felony charges carrying a potential sentence of life in prison with the ability to return to the NFL?
However it goes, it clearly hasn’t gone the way the Seahawks had intended. The absence of any discussion about Arnold in the fourth installment of Hard Knocks suggests that the Seahawks are hoping to pretend that none of it ever happened.
NFL owners typically meet every March, May, October, and December. They’ll have special meetings, typically when a team is being sold.
They’re having one today, regarding the proposed sale of the Seahawks for a record $9.612 billion to a group led by Vinod Khosla. With the bid securing unanimous approval from multiple key ownership committees, it should be a no-brainer to get the 24 “yes” votes.
It’ll happen in Atlanta, and as explained by Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal, it’s expected to take only a few hours.
Other topics on the agenda, per Fischer, include a “tentative” vote on a new package of ticketing deals, a plan to support efforts to modernize the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the status of media rights, and discussions regarding prediction markets, flag football, and officiating.
Recent new items also will surely be an unofficial topic of conversation or, at a minimum, scuttlebutt: 49ers owner Jed York’s arrest in a trailer-park prostitution sting operation and the recent study showing that an alarmingly high rate of NFL players were determined after their deaths to have CTE.
Even if the meeting itself is short, it feels like the list of challenges for the league is growing, not shrinking, as the next NFL season is looming.
Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said on Sunday that safety Bud Clark and offensive lineman Mason Richman would miss extended time after suffering injuries in Seattle’s preseason game against the Titans.
We learned just how much time they’ll miss on Tuesday. Clark and Richman were both placed on injured reserve, which means they’ll be ineligible to return to action during the regular season.
Clark was a second-round pick this year and he broke his ankle on Sunday night. Richman was a 2025 seventh-round pick and he went down with an undisclosed lower body injury.
The Seahawks signed offensive tackle Derrick Graham, safety Tysheem Johnson and running back Justin Jones in other moves.
Seahawks rookie receiver Emmanuel Henderson was a sixth-round pick, which means he has to compete just to make the roster. But head coach Mike Macdonald wants Henderson thinking about a lot more than just making the roster.
Macdonald said after Sunday night’s preseason game, in which Henderson caught one pass, returned two kickoffs, and was a gunner on punts, that he wants Henderson to fulfill his potential, which should mean a lot more than just making a team.
Asked whether special teams is the reason Henderson is in Seattle, Macdonald answered, “It’s one of the reasons, for sure, but why stop there?”
“That’s the stuff that really popped, and gets you excited from his college tape, the return game,” Macdonald said. “He should be trying to be an All-Pro returner, too. He should be thinking of being a great receiver in our league as well.”
Henderson spent three years at Alabama but didn’t get on the field much before transferring to Kansas last year. In his one year at Kansas, Henderson was chosen by the Big 12 coaches as a first-team All-Big 12 returner and a third-team All-Big 12 receiver. Macdonald thinks Henderson has just scratched the surface of what he can do.
