Easy Rider Holmgren Revels In Lombardi Mystique, But Doesn’t Expect To Replace It
Mike Holmgren is no Vince Lombardi when it comes to motivational speeches or catch phrases. He’ll admit that.
Yet his “We’re going to win it all, why not?” remark after his Green Bay Packers whipped Atlanta has given him his own trademark, especially after the San Francisco 49ers tried to use it as bulletin board fodder and it blew up in their startled faces.
Heading into today’s NFC championship at Dallas, Holmgren said his comment still holds, but he won’t pull a Joe Namath and guarantee anything.
“I’m not saying a word,” Holmgren said. “We’re tickled pink to be in this game.”
Try putting that on your bulletin board, Dallas. Holmgren, who chastised quarterback Brett Favre last month for saying he deserved the MVP award which he later won - wasn’t gloating when he said what he did.
He was simply answering a question concerning how he felt about his team’s chances. He’s had to explain over and over that his statement simply reflected the confidence he has in his team, nothing more.
“I was surprised at how the remark got amplified,” said Holmgren, who was the 49ers offensive coordinator before taking the Green Bay job in 1992.
“In talking with the players who were there when I was there after the game and in talking to their coaches and in talking to their trainers, they all knew what was happening there,” Holmgren said. “But at the same time, I would use similar strategy, I suppose, if I could find a little something. I’ve tried to use that bulletin board stuff here before and my players have been like, ‘Yeah, right.’ They don’t put much stock in it.
“We don’t even have a bulletin board,” safety LeRoy Butler said.
Favre said Holmgren’s comment actually allowed the Packers to take a devil-may-care attitude into San Francisco for Holmgren’s first game against his former team, which resulted in a 27-17 victory.
The Cowboys know how good Green Bay is, even if they’ve beaten the Packers five times at Texas Stadium in the last three years.
“I appreciate and admire the job that Mike Holmgren has done and the season that Brett Favre has had this year,” Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman said. “Just because of the success that we’ve had previously, that does not automatically in our minds translate into success (today).”
Holmgren is 42-23 against the rest of the NFL and 0-5 against Dallas.
But a victory today in the Packers’ first conference championship since Lombardi’s sixth and final appearance in 1967 would square things up in Holmgren’s book.