Danny O’Neil

Most Influential, Sports: Sandy Gregory

Most Influential, Sports: Sandy Gregory

Sports executive, activist

Sandy Gregory was an original Seahawk, hired six months before the team played its first game, and no one had a bigger role in weaving that franchise into the fabric of this region. She spent decades doing everything from arranging charity appearances to coordinating events to getting items signed for benefit auctions and people in need. As the team became an institution, she also kept the franchise connected to its former players.

Clarity: Becoming a Beginner

Clarity: Becoming a Beginner

Change is inevitable. Let’s embrace it.

So, I shut up for the next minute or maybe even two. I stopped listening to what was being said and let my eyes wander around the studio before I began staring distantly at a spot on the wall above the window that looked out into the newsroom. I was like a pinball machine that had tilted.

His Own Man

His Own Man

Pete Carroll doesn’t always trust the analytics that have taken over sports

Socially liberal, but a football conservative. That description of Pete Carroll may come as a surprise to Seattle, which for the past 13 years has watched the coach defy the expectations of his profession. In other words, he’s not beholden to analytics. He does not use fear to motivate his players. He does not threaten…

The Numbers Guy

The Numbers Guy

Sean Clement backed into a career he didn’t know existed

Sean Clement was not looking for a profession when he began applying formulas to football. He just needed practice. A graduate of Bremerton High School, Clement was an officer in the Army in his mid-30s. He felt a little bit out of his depth among all these big math brains as he began a graduate…

The Grind Of A Grudge

The Grind Of A Grudge

MOVING PAST ANGER AND LETTING GO OF TOXIC ENERGY

I was watching a Seahawks practice when the man I’d shunned for three years offered me an apology. “I’m sorry,” said Dave Mahler. You might know him as Softy. He hosts the afternoon sports-talk show at KJR 93.3 FM. “I was wrong, and I shouldn’t have said what I did.” He then offered me his…

collapse of a conference

collapse of a conference

The Pac-12 has no one to blame but itself

The Pacific Coast Conference had a hell of a run for something conceived on a Thursday night in a Portland hotel. It has been more than 100 years since five schools came together on Dec. 2, 1915, at the Imperial Hotel, forming the conference that has won more NCAA team championships than any other collegiate…

Clarity: Defeating Depression

Clarity: Defeating Depression

Seeking help is a starting point, not the finish line

I was 20 years old and in my second year at the University of Washington when I stumbled into a rut. It was summer. I was the only one left in an apartment I’d rented with three other guys that school year. Everybody else had gone home, but I was taking classes and became something…

Clarity - Confidence or Cash: a Paradox

Clarity – Confidence or Cash: a Paradox

CAN MONEY BUY SELF-ESTEEM? IT’S COMPLICATED.

Sensitive men are having their moment right now, which means it should be my time to shine. I see my therapist every other week. I talk about my feelings. I cried in public before it was ever considered a sign of strength. You want vulnerable? I’m so freaking vulnerable. I’m the kind of guy who…

Clarity - Exasperated and Exhausted

Clarity – Exasperated and Exhausted

Burnout is more complicated than you may think

I woke up in Florida on a Sunday morning with a hangover and a patch of angry red bumps on the small of my back. I also couldn’t find the Montreal Expos cap I had been wearing the night before. I had a Seattle Seahawks game to cover that afternoon in Tampa, multiple stories to…

Screen Gem - Nate Burleson

Screen Gem – Nate Burleson

FORMER O’DEA STAR AND NFL RECEIVER RISES TO THE TOP OF HIS NEW PROFESSION

Nate Burleson was right. It is awfully early. Just after 5 a.m., in fact, and while the lights in Times Square remain on that’s because the lights in Times Square never turn off and as I approach the Broadway address for the studio where we’re meeting, a man in a suit steps forward. “Who are…

Media: Michael McPhearson

Media: Michael McPhearson

Taking over the ‘South Seattle Emerald’ at a crucial time

Michael McPhearson is one of Seattle’s 25 most influential people reshaping our region. #mostinfluential   The South Seattle Emerald  born in 2014, founded in a basement and funded by the savings account of Marcus Harrison Green. The online publication has come an awful long way since then, growing to fill Green’s ambition of providing a platform…

Sports: Julio Rodriguez

Sports: Julio Rodriguez

Mariners’ phenom led all rookies in virtually every offensive statistic last baseball year

Julio Rodriguez is one of Seattle’s 25 most influential people reshaping our region. #mostinfluential   At age 21, he was the youngest player at last year’s MLB All-Star Game and the runner-up in the Home Run Derby. He is strong and fast and plays baseball with an unmistakable enthusiasm. He is Julio Rodriguez, the latest phenom…

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