Mike Holmgren deal imminent
He commits to Hawks through '08
By DANNY O'NEIL
SEATTLE P-I REPORTER
Most of the suspense over Mike Holmgren's future was sapped last week when he said he wanted to keep coaching the Seahawks beyond 2006.
The rest will evaporate when the team announces the two-year extension of his coaching contract, which could be as soon as today.
Holmgren and the team agreed to terms of a two-year extension, according to a source. The news was first reported by the Tacoma News Tribune.
Holmgren has one season remaining on the eight-year, $32 million contract he signed to come to Seattle from Green Bay in 1999. The two-year extension goes through 2008. The terms of the extension, including salary and whether there are any exit provisions, were not known late Tuesday.
The deal formalizes what became clear over the course of last week: Holmgren didn't want questions about his coaching future hanging unanswered over the upcoming season. The team already made it clear it would like to extend Holmgren's contract.
Holmgren acknowledged last Thursday he wanted to stay, and by that time his agent, Bob Lamonte, had been to Seattle at least twice to meet with Seahawks officials and do the heavy lifting in negotiating an extension. Lamonte did not return phone messages on Tuesday.
In the months since the Seahawks' Super Bowl loss to Pittsburgh, Holmgren talked to reporters at different points about the process of introspection before deciding his future. He said he had asked the team for a little time to decide on what he wanted.
His short-term plans were never in doubt because he had a year remaining on his contract.
Seattle's regular-season record is 63-49 in Holmgren's seven seasons as head coach. The Seahawks have made the playoffs four times -- including the last three seasons in a row -- and in 2005 set a franchise record for regular-season victories (13) and reached the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history.
Holmgren has a 2-4 record in playoff games with the Seahawks.
The question was what he wanted beyond the 2006 season. After all, he came to the Seahawks as the top man in the football food chain. He had the two-pronged job of coach and general manager and the biggest paycheck of any NFL coach.
He lost the general manager's responsibilities after the 2002 season. It was the first demotion of his career and it stung.
In many ways, the 2005 season was a vindication of some of Holmgren's personnel choices as general manager. After all, his handpicked players were the foundation for the league's highest-scoring offense. He traded for quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who made the Pro Bowl. He drafted Shaun Alexander, who was named the league's Most Valuable Player, and left guard Steve Hutchinson, who was named to his third Pro Bowl.
At the league's annual owners' meetings in March, Holmgren admitted there was still an itch to try his hand as general manager again. That fueled speculation about whether Holmgren wanted more responsibility than would be possible in his current job. The Seahawks hired Tim Ruskell as president in February 2005.
Holmgren also talked of his wife's hope that the Seahawks would win the Super Bowl, allowing him to ride off on a white horse as the first man to coach two different teams to Super Bowl victories.
Holmgren took the Packers to consecutive Super Bowls after the 1996 and 1997 seasons. Green Bay defeated New England in Super Bowl XXXI, and then lost to Denver in Super Bowl XXXII.
If he stays for the length of the contract extension, Holmgren will get three more chances to return to the Super Bowl.
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