Catching up with: Jeff West

What he did: Before there was Jon Ryan, before there was Jeff Feagles, before there was Rick Tuten, there was Jeff West. He joined the Seahawks in 1981 and was their punter for four seasons after entering the NFL in 1975 as a fifth-round draft choice of the Cincinnati Bengals and also spending time with the St. Louis Cardinals (’75) and San Diego Chargers (1976-79). In his first season with the Seahawks, he led the AFC with a net average of 36.1 yards. And in 1983 and 1984, when the Seahawks were advancing to the playoffs for the first time (’83) and going 12-4 (’84), West had 25 and 24 punts downed inside the 20-yard line – then club records. He is fourth on the franchise’s all-time list in career punts (299), yards (11,511) and punts inside the 20 (111). He’s also tied for second in most punts in a season (95 in ’84).

What’s he doing: West, now 59, works for Kenworth Truck Company as their IT operations manager. He and his wife also produced a “legacy,” as their daughter, Megan, worked in the Seahawks’ front office for three years.

QUICK HITS

If I could have dinner with anyone – living or dead – it would be: “I’d like to have dinner with my dad, who passed away.”

Must-see TV: “Whatever my wife likes. And football.”

The best book I’ve ever read: “I hope it hasn’t happened yet. My hope is that I still have more to read and that there will be others that I’ll enjoy.”

YOU DON'T SAY

My best memory as a Seahawk: “The team. The people. The thing with sports, and even in my job now, is that you want to come to work every day and enjoy who you’re around. You want to enjoy what you do. And you want to make sure that you come to work every day to be better than the day before and to learn something new. That’s what I miss from my days with the Seahawks. You’d come to work and we all enjoyed what we did. It didn’t seem like work. And we got paid.”

Something most people don’t know about me: “Most people don’t know that I’m an avid sports gun enthusiast and that I hunt and fish. That’s why (former center) Art Kuehn and I get along really well, because we like to hunt and fish together.”

If I could relive one day in my life: “I don’t think I need to relive anything. I would have liked to have done many things a lot better now that I know what I know. But I think it’s been a good life and I’m glad that I’m still here. No regrets. But I wish I knew what I knew when I needed to know it.”