CHANGE MY LOCATION
Laura Vecsey
Seattle People Examiner
Examiner Feeds
These websites were picked by the Seattle People Examiner as useful resources.- Examiner.com/seattle
- Crosscut
- Seattle Weekly
- The Stranger
- Daily Journal of Commerce
- Everett Herald
- Tacoma News Tribune
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer
- Seattle Times
- Puget Sound Business Journal
- Spokesman Review
- Olympian
- University of Washington News & Information
- Pacific Publishing neighborhood newspapers
- Bellingham Herald
- Northwest Asian Weekly
- Seattle Gay News
- Mercer Island Reporter
- Issaquah Press
- Skagit Valley Herald
Seattle Examiners
Seattle Books Examiner
Most Recent Post
Non book gifts that won't break the bank.
Seattle Eastside Parenting Examiners
Most Recent Post
See the Christmas Ship Parade on the Eastside!
Seattle Global Gourmet Examiner
Most Recent Post
75 Years Since the Repeal of Prohibition
Seattle Parenting Examiner
Most Recent Post
Jonas Brothers Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers
Examiner is growing in Los Angeles
We are seeking writers... Ready to join us? Learn More »
Showing entries for Category: Birthday
Holmgren Turns 60 Ahead of Final Year on Hawks' Sideline
Add a Comment
n the Top 10 coaches in Seattle sports history. Lou Piniella, Don James and Lenny Wilkens all beat out Mike Holmgren in the rankings. It's understandable from history's vantage point to see how this could have happened, but maybe Holmgren is under-appreciated at this point in time, since he remains the Seahawks' head coach and his true merits can't be quantified in the chest-thumping culture of today's screaming headline world of sports.To this we say: Happy Birthday to Mike Holmgren, coach of the Seattle Seahawks. And Happy Father's Day, too.
Holmgren turns 60 today and is entering his 10th year as head coach of Seattle's NFL team. Earlier this week, Holmgren made news because he missed two days of a Hawks' minicamp due to a minor medical procedure. It seems like 10 lifetimes ago that Seahawks owner and madmanbillionaire Paul Allen introduced Holmgren as savior of the foundering Seahawks franchise, but Holmgren's endurance is to be applauded.
And after Tom Flores and Dennis Erickson, Holmgren came to Seattle by way of Green Bay carrying with him the requisite gravitas to turn the Hawks around. That it took Holmgren a lot longer to finally get the Hawks to the Super Bowl (2006) and that he was not canned by Allen seems to have only underscored the clout Holmgren maintained.
His early lackluster dual tenure as both coach and general manager finally prompted Allen to take away Holmgren's kingdom crown. Having lost his GM title and duties, Holmgren did not pout or quit or turn into one of those all-too-familiarly bitter pro sports figures. Instead, he continued to demonstrate himself to be a rock-solid, affable, smart, caring, big-picture kind of adult who deserves whatever respect and success comes his way.
And, oh yes, he found a way to manage a quirky running back named Shaun Alexander, deliver Matt Hasselbeck to gritty greatness (as Holmgren promised for the former Green Bay draft pick) and meld a West Coast Offense with a formidable defense and turn the Hawks into contenders.
It kills me to know that someone as serious about life, about his family, about community and success and spirituality has to continue to lambast idiotic NFL players, as Holmgren did this week when he dressed down the Seahawks. Two star players are in serious legal trouble and it was left to Holmgren to make a snarly appeal to his players to keep their noses clean.
It seems beneath Holmgren, really, to have to do this kind of work anymore. He is talking retirement. When he joked about wanting a cushy broadcasting job, it got some of us thinking that it will be better for Holmgren when he moves on, probably after this season, to the broadcast booth. The man has worked hard for a long time, even in spite of the criticism leveled at him in recent years that he was not the kind of coach to sleep on the coach and not go home from July through February.
If he hasn't been obsessed with coaching and winning at any cost, Holmgren has been consistently professional and acccountable. Here's hoping he has recovered from his medical procedure fine, that his wife and kids are doing good, too. Seattle has had its share of larger-than-life characters as head coaches. If Holgren falls in back of Piniella or Don James in the perception department, that does not mean he did not make some important contributions to what it means to be a consistently professional and honorable professional sports coach. One more year for Holmgren in Seattle as the Seahawks' head coach. Hopefully, it will go down easy.
Topics: Seahawks , Holmgren , Retirement , 60th Birthday , Birthday
Subscribe
Feed
