Holmgren sputters to the finish

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By David Elfin

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.