AP News, February 3rd, 2007
Tennessee Titans owner Bud Adams narrowed his search for a new general manager, interviewing two finalists Friday from the Seattle Seahawks.
Mike Reinfeldt, the Seahawks' vice president of football operations, and Ruston Webster, their vice president of player personnel, met with Adams in Houston, where the Titans' owner lives and works.
"I would hate to lose either one of them," Seahawks president of football operations Tim Ruskell said on Friday. "It would be crushing. But I think it reflects well on our organization."
Adams is also expected to interview a third finalist, whom The Tennessean reported is Jacksonville Jaguars director of pro personnel Charles Bailey.
The Titans are replacing general manager Floyd Reese, who resigned after 13 seasons on Jan. 5, a month before his contract expired.
Reinfeldt is the only finalist with previous ties to this franchise and its days in Houston as the Oilers. He played eight of his nine NFL seasons at safety for the Oilers from 1976 to 1983, leading the NFL with 12 interceptions in 1979 and leading the team in picks three different seasons.
He has an MBA in management and finance, worked for the Los Angeles Raiders, was associate athletic director at the University of Southern California and joined the Green Bay Packers in 1991.
Reinfeldt just concluded his seventh season with the Seattle, where he oversees player negotiations and the salary cap, and was named vice president of football administration in March 2005. He helped re-sign Matt Hasselbeck and Walter Jones, and worked out an extension for 2005 MVP Shaun Alexander.
He and Ruskell were also part of the decision to give Pro Bowl guard Steve Hutchinson a transition-player designation instead of a franchise tag last offseason. Hutchinson then signed with Minnesota in free agency after the Vikings included an unprecedented "poison pill" contract provision Seattle could not match.
"Yes, he does know the money deal," Ruskell said of Reinfeldt. "But the guy played in the National Football League, he knows what players are like, as well."
Webster, a University of Mississippi graduate, is a former assistant coach and scout who worked 19 years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he was director of pro personnel and college scouting in a department led by Ruskell.
"Ruston, I worked with a long time ago, he is a good organizer and somebody that everybody respects and gets a long with," Ruskell said.
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AP Sports Writer Gregg Bell in Seattle contributed to this report.
