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Holmgren: 'I'm one stubborn Swede'

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Posted: Tuesday October 05, 1999 08:50 AM

Seattle coach Mike Holmgren says he is 100 percent behind his general manager, Mike Holmgren. The Seahawks pulled their contract offer to wideout Joey Galloway off the table last week after Galloway refused to sign a deal which would have made him the second-highest-paid receiver in the game. Holmgren tells me he categorically will not deal Galloway before the mid-October trading deadline. As the coach/GM told me, "Joey's going to find out that I'm one stubborn Swede."

Speaking of coaching declarations, how's this one: Miami coach Jimmy Johnson all but guaranteed me that troubled defensive end Dimitrius Underwood would be on the Dolphins' opening-day roster in 2000.

Johnson makes no bones about his interest in Underwood, who tried to commit suicide a week ago. Johnson always goes 10 extra miles with the players who he thinks can win for him, and, as he told me, "This is one of the handful of the best defensive linemen I've ever coached."

Shanahan: Broncos too complacent

I spoke to Denver coach Mike Shanahan on Saturday and was really surprised to hear that he thinks the Broncos have been too complacent. Shanahan says that going into the season, he knew the Broncos would likely lose two of the team's first three games -- against Miami and against Tampa Bay. In his opinion, it wouldn't have mattered if they had John Elway or not against those two defenses, two of the best he has ever faced in all his years in the league.

Packers tight end Mark Chmura has a message for everyone. Barring a surprise diagnosis in the next few weeks when he visits three or four neck specialists, he says he's not retiring and will play next season. Chmura says he's only at step 3 of a 20-step process in determining his future, but nothing he's heard so far suggests that doctors will tell him to hang it up.

Young should play until doctors say no

More on the retirement front. I totally agree with Steve Young. If a neurosurgeon isn't telling him to get out of the game, who are all of these so-called brain experts suddenly telling him to retire? He should play as long as he wants.

There's no dominant team in the NFC, so who's to say that by the end of the year the 49ers don't have their line problems figured out and will be okay? Remember: Roger Staubach retired from the NFL after suffering 11 concussions. He's now 57 years old and somebody close to him told me this week, "Roger's got every marble he was ever born with."

This week when a bummed-out Young told his agent, Leigh Steinberg, that he was going to have to sit out one game, Steinberg said, "That's good news." Young replied, "I don't even want to give Jeff Garcia one week to get me out of a job." This is one competitive guy.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL and appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN's NFL Preview.

 

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