Twitter
    Sportspress Northwest
    • Football
    • Baseball
    • NCAA
    • Hockey
    • Soccer
    • Basketball
    Twitter
    Sportspress Northwest
    Twitter
    Home » Thiel: Few Seahawks left who knew Holmgren
    King5

    Thiel: Few Seahawks left who knew Holmgren

    Art ThielBy Art ThielOctober 19, 2011Updated:October 4, 20124 Comments5 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Reddit LinkedIn Email
    Share
    Facebook Twitter Reddit LinkedIn Email
    Charlie Whitehurst at starting quarterback is just one of many changes among the Seahawks as they prepare to meet their old boss, Mike Holmgren, in Cleveland Sunday. / Drew Sellers, Sportspress Northwest

    Not that he doesn’t have affection for Mike Holmgren, who helped take him to a Super Bowl.  But Seahawks linebacker Leroy Hill knows how the cruel the NFL calendar is regarding such ephemeral things as personal sentiment.

    “What is he now, two-three years removed (from Seattle)?” Hill said, smiling. “It over.”

    Indeed, Holmgren, the most imperial figure in Seahawks history, has been gone from coaching the Seahawks for 2 1/2 years. And it’s been 22 months since he was in the mix to become Seahawks ayatollah.

    His name comes up now only because the Seahawks at 10 a.m. Sunday play the Browns in Cleveland, where Holmgren received what he sought in Seattle — command of an NFL  empire.

    Holmgren is president, and also makes personnel calls and front-office decisions down to, presumably, whether to go Mac or PC. And who knows? Maybe he’s a Mac guy, and that’s why owner Paul Allen, the ex-Microsoft billionaire, decided to cut ties with Holmgren.

    It was never made clear publicly exactly why Holmgren, after a year away from coaching, was not selected as Seahawks team president, as many fans and some media demanded. But the deduction did not require a degree in quantum physics: The Seahawks already gave Holmgren ultimate power once, and it didn’t work. He became more successful when he was confined to coaching. Besides, 10 years tied to an epic ego is usually enough to wear out a franchise, unless one owns (Jerry Jones, Dallas) the franchise.

    So Holmgren found an owner, Randy Lerner, willing to give him the nuclear button. He fired the coach and hired a rookie who was willing to play a rookie quarterback. The coach, Pat Shurmur, Wednesday by phone offered up the critical virtue that assured his hiring (other than being the nephew of Holmgren’s longtime friend and assistant coach, the late Fritz Shurmur).

    “I told (Holmgren), I said, ‘Hey, I pride myself on being a good listener,’” Shurmur said. “I know I don’t know everything. To have a resource like Mike Holmgren, it’s invaluable.”

    All is true, especially the part about needing to be a good listener with Holmgren. But after the Jim Mora regime ended with a single dubious year, the Seahawks bosses were done with inexperienced head coaches.  When Pete Carroll let his availability be known, there was no way he would be as compliant as Shurmur, nor a fit under Holmgren. Thanks for a great decade, Mike.

    From Holmgren’s end, there doesn’t figure to be much sentiment toward players and coaches, although delivering a figurative uppercut to the Allen ownership Sunday probably will feel a tad tingly. As far as personnel, there’s almost no one left in Seattle that he knows.

    Only eight players remain from Mora’s last game, and only one remains from Holmgren’s Super Bowl team — Hill. Now that cornerback and defensive captain Marcus Trufant is on injured reserve with a back injury that threatens his career, Hill, a third-round draft pick in 2005, is, at 29 in his seventh season, the lone gray eminence in terms of tenure. Preceded by the departure of linebacker and team leader Lofa Tatupu, the 2011 defense is largely a group of strangers to themselves, much less Holmgren.

    “It’ll be great to see him — I appreciate everything he did for me,” Hill said in the locker room Wednesday. “He did a fantastic job here, taking the franchise from obscurity to the national scene. He’ll probably do the same for Cleveland.”

    Holmgren also was here when the Seahawks receded from the national scene, although he would be one of many to lay the decay upon ex-general manager Tim Ruskell’s personnel judgments, most of which have been wiped off the roster.

    The turnover most notable for this week is the secondary, where Trufant is replaced by Walter Thurmond, a second-year player. The other corner is Brandon Browner, a rookie with four years in the Canadian Football League. The safeties are two second-year guys, Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas. A secondary doesn’t get much younger without having child seats on the team bus.

    Then there’s the quarterback spot. The Seahawks go to Cleveland presumably with Charlie Whitehurst in charge. He took most of the snaps Wednesday in practice as starter Tarvaris Jackson rested a strained pectoral muscle. Although Carroll was vague about who would start, barring a miracle recovery by Jackson, Whitehurst will get the chance he thought he would get at the beginning of the season, before Jackson was imported from Minnesota.

    Holmgren would loathe such a situation, not having a premier quarterback, or one he could groom into one, such as now with rookie Colt McCoy. But this team is far from Holmgren’s team, in so many ways.

    Carroll and Holmgren share some roots — both are from San Francisco, and Holmgren played at USC, where Carroll coached — and have known each other for a long time. But they are as different in football tactics as they are in personality.

    Carroll had to throw away Holmgren’s team and start over. Holmgren would very much enjoy throwing away Carroll’s team Sunday. Too bad their jobs won’t allow a post-game handshake on the field.

    Share. Facebook Twitter Reddit LinkedIn Email

    Related Posts

    Thiel: A football Yoda has won over Seahawks

    June 18, 2021

    Thiel: New NFL rules make it hard to avoid a jab

    June 17, 2021

    Thiel: Adams not in camp, but no high drama yet

    June 16, 2021

    4 Comments

    1. cruddly on October 20, 2011 4:43 pm

      I am glad they blew up the Seahawks.  This is no reflection on Holmgren, who is largely responsible taking the Seahawks to their only Super Bowl.  But come on, things were so screwed up with the team and with their management by the end of his 10 years in Seattle, that it just had to be blown up.  It wasn’t his fault that things had come to that, but he sure wasn’t going to fix it.  Only blowing it up and starting over would do that.

    2. cruddly on October 20, 2011 8:43 am

      I am glad they blew up the Seahawks.  This is no reflection on Holmgren, who is largely responsible taking the Seahawks to their only Super Bowl.  But come on, things were so screwed up with the team and with their management by the end of his 10 years in Seattle, that it just had to be blown up.  It wasn’t his fault that things had come to that, but he sure wasn’t going to fix it.  Only blowing it up and starting over would do that.

    3. Danielle Ni Dhighe on October 20, 2011 9:01 pm

      Check your facts. Colt McCoy is a 2nd year player.

    4. Danielle Ni Dhighe on October 20, 2011 1:01 pm

      Check your facts. Colt McCoy is a 2nd year player.

    • Follow @Art_Thiel on Twitter
    Use our affiliate link on Amazon

    Subscribe to Our Weekly Roundup

    Get the top stories sent to your inbox every Thursday.

    Art Thiel on KNKX 88.5FM

    Kirsten Kendrick's Q. & A. with Thiel can be heard every Friday during Morning Edition at 5:45am and 7:45am and again that same day on All Things Considered at 4:44pm. It also airs Saturday at 9:35am.

    Listen now!
    Latest Posts

    A few musings about sports journalism as the unwinding begins

    February 18, 2022

    Carroll’s staff makeover seeks to get Wilson back in the game

    February 16, 2022

    Arizona loss unmasks truths about Hopkins, UW hoops

    February 15, 2022

    Rams win a survivors contest called the Super Bowl

    February 14, 2022
    Twitter
    • Football
    • Baseball
    • NCAA
    • Hockey
    • Soccer
    • Basketball
    © 2023 Sportspress Northwest

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.