Mike Holmgren has acknowledged he probably won’t work in Green Bay forever, so rumors about his next stop are making the rounds this week, starting with Seattle.
The Seahawks are looking for a general manager and Tom Donahoe of the Pittsburgh Steelers turned them down Monday. Under new owner Paul Allen, the Seahawks have said they want to separate the jobs of coach and general manager. Holmgren said this week he isn’t through coaching. His contract in Green Bay runs through 1999.
When Holmgren was asked whether he would like a general manager/coaching job, he said: “Certainly. At some point in my life, I’d like to do that.
“I haven’t heard from anybody and I’m under contract.”
Packers General Manager Ron Wolf, once believed under consideration for the Seattle job himself, said he expects Holmgren eventually to be a general manager/coach.
“He certainly has the capability,” Wolf said. “Look at the people doing it. He certainly is as capable as they are.”
But Wolf refused to address Seattle rumors in particular.
“We have a game coming up this weekend and it’s a ridiculous question,” he said. “When the game’s over, then they can contact us and we can go through this process, but to keep answering questions about a situation that hasn’t even arisen is idiotic.”
Miami’s Jimmy Johnson, the New York Jets’ Bill Parcells and the St. Louis Rams’ Dick Vermeil became coach/general managers within the last two seasons.
Salaries for those positions are in the $2-million-a-year range, but are expected to double along with the recent television contract.
Don Pierson.
What might have been
One of football’s might-have-beens is how close Super Bowl coach Mike Shanahan was to never even being the Denver Broncos’ head coach. And it would have been his own “fault.”
Shanahan, who was fired by former coach Dan Reeves, in part because Reeves distrusted Shanahan’s relationship with quarterback John Elway, was pursued by Broncos owner Pat Bowlen in early 1993 after Reeves was let go. But Shanahan had been through a rough first stint as a head coach with the Raiders in 1988-89 and wasn’t sure he was ready. His reluctance rubbed off on Bowlen, who went instead with Wade Phillips.
Had the Broncos done better under Phillips than their 9-7 and 7-9 seasons, it is doubtful Phillips would have been fired and Shanahan brought in.
“With that reluctance came a certain part of apprehension on my part,” Bowlen said. “Most people are saying, `Oh, a head coaching job in Denver, that’s something I’ve always wanted.’ I guess when Mike didn’t have that approach it was a warning flag for me.”
Shanahan was the San Francisco 49ers’ offensive coordinator and stayed there two more seasons, helping the 49ers to a Super Bowl victory after the 1994 season. Then Bowlen and Shanahan were both ready.
“In hindsight, I think those extra two years out in San Francisco helped,” Bowlen said. “We struggled through two years (under Phillips) but in hindsight that was probably the best thing.”
John Mullin.
Hold the cheese, please
Denver safety Tyrone Braxton grew up in Madison, Wis., but that was a while ago, long before the Packers changed the face of Wisconsin fashion forever.
“There were no cheeseheads when I was growing up,” Braxton recalled. “They didn’t have cheeseheads, I think, until a long time after I was gone.
“I loved the Packers growing up. I watched the games on TV all the time but never had a chance to go see them. But it was my team. I’m from Wisconsin; it’s my state and that’s my second-best team in the league right now.”
John Mullin.
Talk is cheap
Denver fullback and former Chicagoan Howard Griffith is primarily a blocker, which has made him an honorary member of the offensive line. But honorary means being able to talk with the media, something members of the offensive line fined each other for doing.
“The good part about being in my position is that I’m a running back,” Griffith explained. “I wear `29,’ if you look on the program under running backs, so I don’t get fined during the year for talking to the media.”
John Mullin.
Brett: He’s like Mike
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While on the subject of comparisons, Broncos safety Steve Atwater came up with another beauty when asked how to anticipate the unpredictability of Brett Favre.
“I guess he’s like Michael Jordan,” Atwater said. “He gets in the air and he doesn’t know what kind of dunk he’s going to do. Brett Favre is similar to that in that once he’s on the run, you never know if he’s going to run it, throw it to the tight end, throw it to Antonio Freeman, throw it to Robert Brooks or knock it off to Dorsey Levens.”
Melissa Isaacson.
Joyner a joiner
When Seth Joyner joined the Packers after a career in Philadelphia and Phoenix, he was wary about playing in Green Bay.
“It is much, much more pleasant than what I ever imagined,” he said. “I’ve found enough to do. This is such a close-knit team. I think a lot of that has a lot to do with the fact that there isn’t a whole lot to do in Green Bay. Whatever fun we have, we have together. We get together and go down to Milwaukee to basketball games.”
Don Pierson.
Nose tackle who made it
Denver Pro Bowl running back Terrell Davis will get to play in a Super Bowl in his hometown Sunday so he’s one of the local stories of the week. On Tuesday his high school, Lincoln Prep, retired his number.
“It’s something I thought would never happen,” Davis said Wednesday. “I was thinking about the whole thing when I was sitting there and when they raised my number, it was a warm feeling to see that happen. Not too many people get their numbers retired. Getting my high school number retired was kind of cool. My high school athletic career was kind of non-existent. I was a nose tackle there and I was only decent.”
If you believe Davis, he wasn’t that much of a big shot when he played there.
“In school I was a nerd with a backpack and F’s for grades,” he said.
Terry Bannon.
Older, wiser Broncos
Safety Tyrone Braxton is second in seniority only to John Elway on the Broncos, so he knows what it’s like to lose a Super Bowl. Denver’s last two Super Bowl losses were in Braxton’s first and third seasons. And Braxton has learned from his mistakes, especially the 55-10 loss to San Francisco in New Orleans eight years ago.
“My preparation this year is better,” Braxton said. “When we were in New Orleans, I wasn’t in my room studying film.”
The only other Bronco to experience those Super Bowl losses is safety Steve Atwater, a rookie in the loss to San Francisco.
“I look at it like, `I played in one Super Bowl and we lost badly and I was very disappointed.’ I’m not frustrated about it; that’s over with,” he said. “I want to go out and win because I remember the feeling I had after that game. I don’t want to have that feeling anymore.”
Terry Bannon.
Favre and away
Packers quarterback Brett Favre reminded everyone that quarterbacks Todd Marinovich and Dan McGwire were drafted ahead of him in 1991 after Favre injured his hip in the East-West Shrine game.
“I had an MRI and they said I wouldn’t pass the physical,” Favre said.
But Favre also admitted he was a late-bloomer as a quarterback after a career at Southern Mississippi, the biggest school to offer him a scholarship. Favre’s high school career in Kiln, Miss., didn’t include such fancy concepts as passing.
“I remember (ex-Packer) Ty Detmer telling me about him doing passing drills in high school,” Favre said. “We ran into tackling dummies and were doing monkey rolls with my dad (his high school coach).”
Don Pierson.
Turning ’em loose
Could it be that the Packers, the defending Super Bowl champions, are the tighter of the two teams? At least the Packers aren’t as relaxed as they were a year ago, safety LeRoy Butler said.
“We were looser last year,” Butler said. “Mike (Holmgren) doesn’t like it when we get too loose. He likes to turn up the pressure.”
Terry Bannon.