Jody Allen to football guys amid Seahawks sale: Business as usual ‘let’s rip it’
It was abrupt.
The blue-and-green confetti had barely settled onto the streets and sidewalks from the Seahawks’ Super Bowl parade when the team’s ownership announced last week the franchise is for sale.
Team chair Jody Allen then met in the last week with general manager John Schneider and coach Mike Macdonald. Her edict was clear.
Business as usual.
The Seahawks’ football guys say the sale of the team is not impacting the business they are in.
You know, football.
“It really hasn’t,” Macdonald said Wednesday at the NFL scouting combine. “You know what’s going on. But, I mean, business as usual.
“That’s the charge that Jody gave us, too. So, pretty simple.”
The statement announcing the sale by the Paul G. Allen Estate last week said the process to the franchise’s first sale since Paul Allen bought the Seahawks from Ken Behring in 1997 is expected to last through the entire offseason. The deal that could be worth $10 billion or more, which would set a North American sports record, could last perhaps into the 2026 season. That begins in September.
In the meantime, the team is proceeding with re-signing their own free agents before the market opens March 9. Then the Seahawks will sign outside free agents. That process is full go this week at the combine this week. Schneider is meeting with representatives for pending free agents plus outside free agents this week in Indianapolis, to learn initial prices for the team to counter next week.
Then: The draft April 23-25, rookie and veteran minicamps in the weeks after, offseason meetings, workouts and practices then training camp beginning in late July leading into the season.
During all that, Allen has told Schneider and Macdonald to proceed as if there was no sale pending.
Even if the Seahawks were sold tomorrow, much of the football side wouldn’t change. The new owner(s) are bound to honor existing contacts. The league’s salary cap is set, with each team annually spending up to that limit.
It’s not like a team for sale or new owners will spend less than the cap floor limit, to make the franchise purchase more attractive. Billionaires don’t buy NFL franchises with discounts or coupons.
Plus, the league’s collective bargaining agreement with its players mandates teams maintain a minimum cash spending of 90% of the salary cap over any three-year period.
After a buyer steps forward to make an offer, it will take months for lawyers and the Allen estate to vet the potential new owners and approve the transaction. Given the amount of money involved, it’s likely multiple investors will bid for the Seahawks. That would mean more extensive vetting of multiple potential owners, with a longer review. Then the league’s owners will have to ratify any sale agreement before it becomes final.
So Allen is telling her GM and coach to pay no mind to the sale, to go get another, back-to-back Super Bowl championship.
“I had a great talk with Jody the other night. And she’s like, ‘Let’s get it. Let’s go for it. Like: ‘Let’s rip it,’” Schneider said Tuesday here at the combine. “And it’s just business as usual for us.
“Yeah, just business as usual. And all football.”
The News Tribune asked the GM is he expects Allen to still be his team chair he answers directly to when the 2026 season begins in September.
“I have no idea,” Schneider said.
This story was originally published February 26, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Jody Allen to football guys amid Seahawks sale: Business as usual ‘let’s rip it’."
