Rock ‘n’ roll career never kicked into gear for ‘Manifold Mike’

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Rock on, Mike Holmgren.

Last week, Seattle’s coach was asked about some vintage video footage that surfaced in the 1990s when Holmgren held the same position with Green Bay.

Holmgren was a member of garage band Big Bop and the Choppers while coaching high school football in California in the 1970s. Known as “Manifold Mike,” Holmgren had his hair slicked back and a wrench dangling from his waist when singing at a school fund-raiser.

“The video is around somewhere,” said Holmgren, whose Seahawks play today against the Packers. “I used to be in a little rock-and-roll band and somehow the black market got a hold of the tape and it appeared on one of our highlight films there one night.

“It was all coaches and stuff. Some guys are very, very talented. I wasn’t one of them, but I was part of the group. I sometimes think if my path had gone a different way … “

Judging by the Super Bowl he won in Green Bay and Seattle (13-2) now having home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs, Holmgren made the right decision to stick with coaching instead of trying to become the second coming of Sha Na Na’s Bowser.