January 13, 2008 in Sports

Holmgren’s plans remain up in the air

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Associated Press photo

Seattle coach Mike Holmgren will thaw out before deciding on his future. Associated Press
(Full-size photo)

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Mike Holmgren has dropped hints for months, especially in the last few weeks, about whether he’ll fulfill the final season of his contract to coach Seattle.

But the snow blowing across Green Bay was louder than anything Holmgren had to say on the subject Saturday night.

“Kathy and I are going to go away for a while and let the dust settle,” Holmgren said after the Seahawks lost in the NFC divisional playoffs for the second consecutive season, this time 42-20 in a whiteout to the Packers.

“I’ll tell you, it’s hard when you lose. The emotions of this sport makes it great to play and coach – I’ve always said I am one of the luckiest guys in the world. But … you need some time to get away from things and think clearly.”

Holmgren, 59, said he felt similar to how he felt after losing in overtime at Chicago in the same round 12 months ago. He then retreated with his wife for some contemplation on whether to coach again.

“Oh, shoot. It’s kind of the same. It’s hard,” he said. “When you put your heart and soul into it – so you just ask that everyone give you time to sort things out.”

Holmgren is 59, has four grown daughters and four granddaughters. He spent the bye week at his home in the Arizona desert, riding his motorcycle. Throughout the season, he coyly joked that he envied the new lives of friends and former coaches Bill Cowher and Bill Parcells.

Cowher, the former Steelers head man, is in his first year as a television analyst on Sundays and a stay-at-home golfer and family man the other days. Parcells just took what Holmgren joked was a relatively cushy job as a top executive with the Miami Dolphins.

Shaun Alexander, the fading rushing star who scored on a 1-yard run on Seattle’s first play of the game after Ryan Grant fumbled on the Packers’ initial play, hinted that Holmgren has already shared his future plans.

When asked if he had an idea which way his coach was leaning, Alexander bowed his head and dropped his voice, too.

“I do. But I don’t want to talk about it. I’m very close to Mike.”

Alexander, who has clashed with Holmgren and also dashed to a league MVP award for him, said he can’t imagine the Seahawks without their head man since 1999, following a hugely successful seven-year stint in Green Bay.

“I’ve never even thought about it before,” Alexander said.

“My whole career, Mike has always given me an incredibly hard time and I’ve given him an incredibly hard time right back. If you’re an outsider, you’d think we were always butting heads. I told him, ‘I’m like your Brett Favre.’ … The one thing I wish is that I would be able to give him a Super Bowl like Brett did.”

Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who is closer to Holmgren than any player by virtue of the coach’s background with the position, said he didn’t know what Holmgren would do next.

“I’m not worried about that at all – not even a little bit,” Hasselbeck said, noting he thinks Seattle has a special team after five consecutive playoff appearances.

“Not that I know the answer.”

Pollard also ponders future

Two passes and a key fumble weren’t all that Marcus Pollard dropped.

The 35-year-old tight end, Seattle’s most experienced postseason performer with 13 appearances – 12 with the Indianapolis Colts – dropped hints afterward that his last chance for a Super Bowl may have ended.

“When you’ve played 13 years in the league, you play to win a Super Bowl,” he said. “I thought this year was a good opportunity for us to get to that point and to come up short makes it tough, especially having been in the game for so long. You never know how many opportunities you’re going to get to get to this point.”

Pollard, signed to replace Jerramy Stevens before the season, fumbled after a catch on the first play of the second quarter. Green Bay scored three plays later on a pass from Brett Favre to Greg Jennings to take the lead for good, 21-14.

Pollard also allowed a perfect pass from Hasselbeck to go through his arms in the back of the end zone. He said the swirling snow got in his eyes, but did not want that to be an excuse.

“I feel like I was a direct cause to the outcome of the game,” Pollard said. “But I’m man enough to step up and say, ‘Hey, it was my fault, I could’ve done better.’

“It’s going to be hard to put it behind me.”

Quite a show of snow

Holmgren and Hasselbeck both said they were surprised with the intensity of the snow that increased from the second quarter into the final period.

It blanketed the field so much that yard lines disappeared and plows came in to make them at least semi-visible to players, coaches and officials.

The Seahawks, like everyone else in Wisconsin, had been getting reports all week until hours before the game that there was a 30 percent chance of mere, harmless flurries.

“I’m trying to think when I lived here if the weather people were so wrong as they were last night when I looked at the television,” Holmgren said.

Hasselbeck said the snow, which made it difficult for him to see receivers and for receivers to see the ball, was the game’s biggest surprise.

“The weather surprised me probably more than anything,” he said. “That was crazy weather. That was Packers weather.

“It was fun playing in the snow. It obviously stinks we lost, but we were talking on the sidelines that that’s what you kind of grow up doing as a kid. Snowstorm like that. Home from school, out in the front yard playing with all your friends.”

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