vikings/nfl

Not only are the Vikings spanking teams on the field, they're threatening to haunt at least one outgoing NFL executive for eternity.

During a press conference to announce his resignation as Seahawks president and general manager, Tim Ruskell took a shot at himself while reflecting on his HUGE mistake that led to Steve Hutchinson leaving Seattle and joining the Vikings in March of 2006.

"I talked to my wife the other day and I said, 'Let’s look at that will again," Ruskell told reporters. "It says `burial,' but let’s go for cremation so they won’t be able to write, 'Here lies the man that lost Hutch' on my tombstone.' "

Hutch became a free agent in 2006. Ruskell took a risk when he made him a transition player. The Vikings, led by financial wizard Rob Brzezinski, pounced with a poison pill that's viewed now as the point in time when the Seahawks began to basically fall apart.

The Vikings signed Hutch to a seven-year, $49 million offer sheet. The Seahawks would have matched, but the poison pill stated that the entire amount would have to be fully guaranteed if Hutch wasn't the highest-paid offensive lineman on the team. That wasn't a problem in Minnesota, but it was unacceptable in Seattle because left tackle Walter Jones was making more money.

It was sneaky. Maybe a little unsportsmanlike. Underhanded. And totally BRILLIANT on the Vikings' behalf.

Some say it also was the beginning of the end of any good will between Ruskell and then-coach Mike Holmgren, who was on vacation when Ruskell made the missteps that lost Hutch to the Vikings.

The Seahawks returned fire with a similar move that netted them Nate Burleson. But it hardly made up for losing a perennial All-Pro left guard in the prime of his career. Plus, the Vikings got a third-round draft pick in return for Burleson.

"Given that situation again, obviously you would want a different result," Ruskell said. "We went in it with the purest of intentions. Everybody knows what we wanted to have happen there. That's what we thought would happen, and it didn't, for an unusual set of circumstances. And I’ll forever be remembered for that, unfortunately, but it wasn’t for lack of wanting the right thing to happen and getting a deal done."

Some have made Ruskell out to be a stooge because of what happened with Hutch. That's unfair. He did make some solid moves that helped the Seahawks get to the Super Bowl in his first year as prez and GM. Also, no team in the league has battled more injuries the past two seasons than Seattle.