He grew up in poverty; his father worked in a lumber yard making 25 cents an hour, and his mother cleaned houses.

He became a salesperson at Montgomery Ward at age 16, and started a side business selling sporting goods in town while attending Monroe High School.

[12][13] In 1988, Behring and partner Ken Hofmann purchased the NFL's Seattle Seahawks football team from the Nordstrom family for $80 million.

[14][15][8][16] After the 1995 season, Behring attempted to transfer team's operations to the Rams’ former facilities in Anaheim, California in an effort to relocate the Seahawks as he grew increasingly dissatisfied with the conditions of the Kingdome,[17][18] a widely criticized move.

[19] Behring was forced to sell the Seahawks to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 1997 for $200 million, who elected to keep the team in Seattle.

[29] In his memoir, Behring described himself as an "average man who achieved extraordinary material success doing a few simple things" who later discovered the "true foundation of joy" was finding purpose and causes worth fighting for.

[12][31] Behring pledged $20 million to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in 1997, with the intention that it be used for educational purposes.

[33] According to the Smithsonian's website, the 22,500-square-foot (2,090 m2) space now features 274 mammal specimens, nearly a dozen fossils, and a variety of interactive learning experiences.

A 1999 story in Seattle Weekly reported that "Behring...settled several sex harassment claims in recent years.

"[50][51] The New York Times reported that Parker "accused Behring of making advances, asking her to pick up his prescription sex-enhancing drugs and requiring she keep waivers on hand for his potential sex partners to sign away their rights to demand money of him.

He has made multiple safari trips to East Africa, and has shot lions, leopards, rhinoceroses, an elephant, and an endangered bighorn sheep.

[53] In 1997, Behring shot an endangered Kara Tau argali sheep in Kazakhstan (only 100 remained in the world at the time).

[4][54] He claimed he had permits to shoot the sheep and had Russian scientists in his hunting party; he was issued export permits two days before the enactment of a prior international decision to move Kara Tau argali to the most-endangered status Per American law, the remains of the endangered animal could not be legally imported into the United States.

The Smithsonian attempted to import the remains by petitioning the Department of the Interior for an Endangered Species Act waiver, but withdrew its request after questioning and negative publicity from Representative George Miller and groups like the Humane Society of the United States.

According to The New York Times, Behring's spokesperson "sent a reporter a copy of a $5,000 check, dated six weeks after the hunt and made out to the provincial government with the notation 'elephant permit.'"