Holmgren sputters to the finish

The imminent collapse of the Seattle Seahawks should have been apparent the instant coach Mike Holmgren announced last winter that this season would be his last.

Going out with a whimper is an NFL tradition:

The last roundup of legendary Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry resulted not in a Lombardi Trophy, but a 3-13 record.

Weeb Ewbank won three championships as a coach but exited the game having led the New York Jets to a 4-10 mark. Four-time Super Bowl winner Chuck Noll left after a 7-9 season with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The crash of the Seahawks, then, should come as no surprise.

The Seahawks reached the Super Bowl three seasons ago and won their division the next year and again last season, when they finished with a 10-6 record and advanced to the second round of the playoffs.

They enter Sunday’s game against the Washington Redskins at Qwest Field on a much different course, with a 2-8 mark that ties them for last place in the division.

Such collapses aren’t without precedent — except for Holmgren. Landry, Ewbank and Noll knew failure early in their careers. Not Holmgren.

He served six highly successful years as an assistant with the San Francisco 49ers. He took over a struggling Green Bay franchise and coached his teams to the playoffs in each of his eight seasons, winning two NFC championships and a Super Bowl.

Holmgren joined the Seahawks in 1999 in order to add the general manager’s role to his duties.

The Seahawks, who hadn’t reached the playoffs in the decade prior to the arrival of Holmgren, won the AFC West in his debut season. Holmgren finally suffered a losing season in 2000 and another in 2002, but he returned to the playoffs in 2003 and has won the past four NFC West titles. In the 2005 season, he earned his third trip to the Super Bowl.

“I hate it for Coach Holmgren,” said Redskins running back Shaun Alexander, who played for Seattle from 2000 to 2007. “He deserves to go out a lot better.”

Holmgren said he is shocked and saddened by the way this season has unfolded, but he at least still managed to laugh about it during a conversation this week.

“It’s been painful, but the idea of going out on the field and coaching and working, I’ve always enjoyed that part of it,” Holmgren said. “The wins and losses this year - this is new territory for me, but I’ve learned some stuff about myself. I kind of hoped that my last year would be a little different, but I have no complaints. This game’s been awesome to me.”

Redskins coach Jim Zorn, an assistant to Holmgren the previous seven years, said his old boss has been equally awesome for the game.

Story Continues →