That's an understandable request.
If you're a first time GM and the ownership puts in a 'veteran' head coach, you know you're little more than a director of player personnel. And worse, if that coach fails, you'll lose your job before he does.
I don't think it's a problem to at least say "look, if I'm coming here, I want to know who I'm working with and what's going to happen if it doesn't work out". That's a more than fair request for someone that's going to be sought after.
Ballard doesn't have the cache to just call his shot, but he's going to have his pick of jobs over the next year or two, IMO. And while I'm not sure he'll have the influence to say "I want you to hire THIS guy or I simply won't come", he may be able to say "hey, what's your short list?" and have genuine input as to the 5-6 strong candidates that are going to be looked at.
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"If there's a god, he's laughing at us.....and our football team..."
"When you look at something through rose colored glasses, all the red flags just look like flags."
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