Canzano: Puck makes a defining leap

Loyalty... friendship... and a leap of faith.

Jim Moore, left, and Jason Puckett formerly of the “Puck & Jim” show on KJR.

The kid everyone called “Puck” was 12 years old when he figured out what he wanted to do.

“I wanted to talk sports,” he said, “and make people laugh.”

He grew up, went to college at Washington State, got married, had children, and built a career in sports radio. Then, he stuck it to the corporate man this week.

I wonder if he knows how fun that sounds to the rest of us.

Jason Puckett, 48, worked at Seattle’s powerhouse KJR radio station for the last 22 years. Most recently, he hosted a successful midday show alongside former Seattle Post-Intelligencer sports columnist Jim Moore.

I like those guys. I had a standing Tuesday appearance for the last three years on the “Puck & Jim” show. Sometimes we talked about sports. Other times, we discussed camping trips, parenting misfires, and pizza. I appreciated their range. I also enjoyed that they were two die-hard WSU fans doing a show on the flagship Huskies station. They were stranded on that island and having the time of their lives.

A few months ago, things got weird.

Puck’s contract ran out. KJR, owned and operated by iHeartMedia, continued to negotiate with him. The sides agreed the co-host would stay on the air and do the show while the details got sorted out at corporate headquarters in San Antonio, Tex.

Puck and his wife have two children — Mari (14) and Owen (10). One of my favorite text messages from Puck came last Christmas morning. He snapped a photo of Owen in front of a chess board, putting the finishing touches on another victory over Dad.

“Merry Christmas,” wrote Puck.

So often we define a person by their occupation. It’s how we introduce each other in social settings. It becomes the default to say that our friend/neighbor is a “sales guy” or a “high school teacher” or that he/she “works at a tech company.” It matters far more that they’re a good parent or spouse, or that they beat cancer a couple of years ago. Still, we go straight to that job of theirs as the primary identifying trait.

A good friend of mine, Alex Molden, played eight seasons in the NFL. Talk about an identity. Once a month, Molden and I get together and have coffee. We rarely discuss football. Instead, we sit for 90 minutes and talk about our families, our jobs, our worries, and unhinged youth sports parents.

Molden told me once that when he retired from the NFL he didn’t know what to do with himself. He showed up to a job interview with a non-profit company in Southern California and figured he’d get the position by default. After all, he’s a former professional athlete. The HR person conducting the interview cut him off, ended it, and said: “Alex, you don’t know who you are. You need to go figure out who you are.”

Turns out, it was a gift.

He’d spent the better part of a decade being “Alex Molden, first-round NFL Draft pick.” It took him a long time to realize that he was so much more than that to so many others. He and his wife have eight children. One of his sons, Elijah, is now a defensive back with the Tennessee Titans.

“Football isn’t who you are,” Molden preaches to his son, “it’s what you do.”

That brings us back to the central figure in today’s column — Puck.

He knows precisely who he is.

Jason Puckett with his children, Owen and Mari.

After months of negotiations and lots of back and forth, KJR presented him with a palatable contract. It included everything Jason Puckett wanted and needed. Of course, that’s right around the time that the rug got pulled out from under his feet. In its next act, iHeartMedia laid off Puck’s co-host, Jim Moore.

“I couldn’t accept the perception more than anything that I had received a new deal while at the same time my partner and good friend, a guy I loved to death and grew up reading when I was a little kid, (was laid off),” Puckett said this week. “… it’s a hard reality, the kind of loyalty I have, I couldn’t live with myself.”

Moore, 66, was nine months from retirement when he got the bad news. He and his wife have a home in Central Oregon where they’ll live full-time. I spoke on the phone with both Puck and Jim on Monday. They were sorting out their options. Trust in their employer had been broken. They were both facing uncertainty. But neither seemed eager to do what was best for themselves at the expense of the other.

Schools ditched the Pac-12 Conference last August because they were doing “what’s best” for themselves. A coach leaves for another job because it’s “what’s best” and we all accept it. An athletic director jumps ship citing “what’s best” for his or her family. It goes on and on, and I can’t say I blame any of them individually.

It’s like the airlines tell us — put on your oxygen mask before you help others. But I wonder if the airplane was going down if a lot of us wouldn’t first turn to the spouse and our children panicking beside us and make sure they had a mask, too.

Puck quit.

He walked away.

He texted me Monday evening: “I’m jumping in the deep end.”

He bet on himself like I did a couple of years ago with this independent writing endeavor. That 12-year-old kid who wanted to make people laugh and talk about sports will continue the mission. But he’s working for himself now, producing a podcast to go with the PuckSports.com website that will be developed in the coming days. That the launch happened on Major League Baseball’s Opening Day feels poetic.

This week, Puckett and Moore have been inundated with encouragement from listeners, colleagues, and sponsors. Puck pointed to the praise in his opening episode on Thursday and said: “You just don’t know what it means to hear people say good things about you. There’s a lot of negativity in the world.”

Jason Puckett is a husband and father. He plays golf, likes to vacation with his family in Mexico, and roots for the Cougars. I might have previously defined him as a “radio host in Seattle” but I understand now how doing so would be missing the point.

He’s more than a radio host. He’s a loyal friend and now, a sudden entrepreneur. And he’s got a solid moral code, this guy.

I’d lead with those things.

Like Puck said this week: “I’m gonna see if I swim or sink. Based on my size, though, I should have buoyancy and probably float.”

I’m here for it.

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