Will Holmgren Pack it in?

Posted: Tue January 20, 1998

Tuesday
Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego

The 10 things I think I think today:

1. I think Green Bay coach Mike Holmgren is interested in the Seattle coach/general manager job. There are rumblings out of Seattle that Seahawks president Bob Whitsitt is interested in talking to either Holmgren or Packers GM Ron Wolf after the Super Bowl. (Wolf would be a candidate for the GM job only.) I pulled Holmgren aside today after the media crush and told him I heard Seattle is interested. "It's news to me,'' he said. "I know nothing about it. Bob LaMonte [his agent] is coming in tonight, and I guess I'll find out then.'' This would have been a convenient time for Holmgren to say, "I'm staying, no question about it." But when he says nothing like that, the rumors are bound to start hot and heavy that he'll leave the Packers for the first big-money, full-power coaching job out there.

2. I think Holmgren would be borderline masterful at the dual role.

3. I think Tim McKyer, the pine-riding Denver corner, had a great memory of the 1991 Atlanta Falcons season with third-string QB Brett Favre in the locker room. "We called him 'Country,' " McKyer said. "I remember he had an incredible arm playing the scout team, and I remember him bending over and mooning us—showing us his booty, man—more than once at practice.''

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4. I think Kerry Collins is history in Carolina. Not only did the Panthers not give him his $6 million post-second-season bonus, making him a restricted free agent, but the word on the NFL street is they aren't interested in matching any offer he gets. Collins's future? My bet is the cornfields of central Indiana.

5. I think Doug Flutie is about to get married to Marc Trestman, for better or worse. Trestman is the favorite to get the Buffalo offensive cordinator's job, which would put him in a weird spot. He'd be teaching, presumably, at least a cousin of the West Coast offense to Flutie and immobile Todd Collins and Alex Van Pelt, and to at least one more quarterback to be imported. You've got to be mobile in that offense. And you know what? You've got to like the 35-year-old Flutie to win that job.

6. I think unemployed-genius-of-the-year George Seifert talked to Dallas owner Jerry Jones for an hour Monday. I hear, further, that Jones was trying to talk Seifert into being interested in the job.

7. I think the Dallas job will come down to UCLA-coach-turned-TV-guy Terry Donahue and Denver offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak, unless Jones gets a bug in his ear about Sherm Lewis, the Packers offensive coordinator.

8. I think the NFL is headed for trouble, with 34-year-old Jon Gruden set to take the Oakland job as early as Wednesday. That would make 17 straight white coaches hired. Spurned Green Bay aide Lewis danced around this topic for 45 minutes today, except to say: "I think I've served a great apprenticeship and I'm very ready to be a head coach.'' I think I'll have more thoughts about this tomorrow, so fire up the ol' computer then.

9. I think Boomer Esiason was smart to take the ABC job. The Bengals would have been willing to pay him $4 million in salary and bonus in 1998, but in the second year of his contract, he would have had to play 75 percent of the Bengals offensive snaps plus lead Cincinnati to the playoffs to activate the $4 million second year of the deal. Since Monday Night Football jobs come open about once a decade, there's no doubt this chance may never have come up again for Esiason. I talked to Esiason this afternoon, and one of the things he realizes is he'll miss the game mightily this year. But he had little choice. In two years, if he hadn't taken the job, he'd be kicking himself.

10. I think I heard someone say the Broncos were tight and the Packers loose Tuesday, and I think I wanted to puke. I can't wait for the game to start and the meaningless questions to end, and it's only Tuesday afternoon, for crying out loud.

See you tomorrow.