Erickson: Hawks Sole Nfl Interest

Seattle Seahawks owners and Miami coach Dennis Erickson are going to talk, perhaps as early as today, about the team’s vacant coaching job. Erickson says the Seattle job is the only NFL post he would consider.

Erickson, who grew up in Everett, said the Seahawks job “would have to be a perfect fit” for him to leave Miami.

“It is near home, but if this one is not for me that will tell me the NFL is not for me,” he told The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post on Friday before catching a flight to San Francisco.

If he were offered the job and took it, Erickson told the newspaper that he would “do it all as soon as I could” - probably by the end of next week.

Despite Erickson’s statements, he has been mentioned as a successor to Wade Phillips, fired by the Denver Broncos. Owner Pat Bowlen said he planned to go to San Francisco to interview Erickson.

Seahawks president David Behring said Friday that Erickson, who also coached at Washington State and Idaho, will be interviewed for the Seattle job during Erickson’s weeklong stay in the San Francisco Bay area. Erickson is in the Bay Area to coach the East team in the East-West Shrine game on Jan. 14.

Behring said he had talked briefly to Erickson, presumably Friday, to arrange the interview, but gave no other details. Behring said he was flying back to California Friday afternoon.

Behring interviewed fired defensive coordinator Rusty Tillman for the coaching job Thursday, but that was considered to be only a courtesy.

Tillman, a 16-year Seattle assistant, said Friday he will interview with Buffalo’s Marv Levy on Monday and New Orleans’ Jim Mora on Tuesday about defensive coordinator jobs with those teams.