SEATTLE — Long before Steve Raible began calling plays for the Seattle Seahawks on the radio, he was making them down on the field.
"The very first year of the franchise, drafted by the team. I was a bonus pick in the second round," Raible said. "And I'm sure John Schneider would look at that today and say, wow, we drafted him a little high."
Raible would go on to play six seasons for the Hawks before hanging up his cleats to try a new route.
"I retired from the Seahawks because of the opportunity to get into radio and television."
Mentored by long-time Seahawks radio voice Pete Gross, Raible became the team's color analyst in 1982 and took over play-by-play duties full-time in 2004. It's a roll that starts long before kickoff.
"We go downstairs to the exhibition hall to the KIRO pregame show, the radio show. And so Wyman and I will go down and do our hit down there. Then we head to the field,” Raible said. "Often times there are former players down on the sidelines. We check in with Jen Mueller, down on the sidelines. Then I have an interview to do with John Schneider, the general manager that's on the radio side. Then we come back up here, we get set, and boom, we hit the ground running."
Like the team he covers, it takes more than just one person to make a successful broadcast happen.
"My nephew Riley is our stats guy. He's been doing it for a few years now.
Brian, he's the producer. So, he's kind of in and out with commercial messages and drop-ins and all those things. He also is my spotter," Raible said. "And then Lloyd is up here running the board and making sure that we can be heard. Dave and I, you know, he was well after my playing days. He's a delight. He's a great guy. Nobody in our group cares who gets the credit, much like this football team. We just love doing the games."
"When Pete would call a touchdown, he would always say, touchdown Seahawks. And when I was offered this opportunity, and I talked it over with our producer, Brian O'Connell, and he said, this is the way to do this touchdown Seahawks. Because it is the team that just scored, it's not one guy."
"The number one philosophy is to make it fun. Make it exciting," Raible said. “The people who are listening to us love the Seahawks. I've been called a homer. Well, yeah, I mean, I want this team to win. This is my team. I've been with it since day one. I want them to win. And so I get excited when they do well."
With a career that spans nearly 50 years with the team, Steve Raible has forever etched his place in Seahawk history.
“I got here in 76. And I've been here ever since. And so to be a part of the Seahawks football team, as a player, to be a part of a television and radio station team to be a part of the Seahawks radio broadcast for all these years," Raible said. "I've been very, very lucky, very blessed."
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