My stint as general manager of MSNBC made me particularly sensitive to how the big stories are covered.
I feel like I'm not the greatest general manager in the history of general managers, but I do OK, and I'm learning as I go. I try to just do my best with it.
My father was a general manager with Hyatt, so we lived in the hotel so he would be close by if there were any problems. My mum was always adamant about us not abusing it. So I still had to clean my room. Housekeeping would never come and do it.
I was hired to be the head football coach, not the general manager.
Every time I sit with our general manager at a baseball game, and there's number-cruncher and statistician guy - I'm sitting around - they start talking about stuff, and I say, 'What's that? I've never heard of that one before.'
The owner's job is to hire the general manager. The general manager's job is to run the hockey team.
I would love to do the whole 'Anonymous General Manager' storyline again. The way it was supposed to turn out was that I was supposed to be this almost mob-boss style character with this Napoleon complex, throwing his power around while running Raw. Obviously things didn't work out that way.
I think it's a requirement that the general manager and the coach are communicating with each other on a regular basis, and it's unacceptable if they're not.
I have to let the general manager do what makes the most sense, or I can't hold him accountable.
The general manager is kind of like the step into darkness when you reach the top of the league. As GM, you're responsible for everything, including the maitre d's and the sommeliers - all these people who have their own agendas. But you probably make less than the maitre d' and have a lot more work and a lot more headaches.
