NFL: Seahawks Holmgren plans walk lap after final home game Sunday
By Josi Miguel Romero
Detroit Free Press
RENTON, Wash. — Mike Holmgren has a plan for how he would like to walk off the field after Sunday's Seahawks-New York Jets game at Qwest Field. It will be Holmgren's last home game as Seahawks coach, having declared that he'll take time off after this season.
"What I'd like to do, if it's OK with everyone," Holmgren said Monday, "is when the game's over, for the folks that want to just stick around just a little bit longer. They might leave if they have dinner reservations, you know, but I was just going to take one little walk around the field and thank the people."
Holmgren's 10 seasons with the Seahawks as coach—four of those (1999-2002) as general manager and coach—are nearing an end.
"It doesn't sound very exotic, but that's what I'd like to do," Holmgren said.
In a twist of fate, Holmgren will share the field in his Seattle finale with his most successful quarterback protege, former Green Bay Packers and now Jets quarterback Brett Favre.
It was Favre who, after the 2005 regular-season finale between the Seahawks and Packers in Green Bay, boarded the Seahawks' team plane to tell Holmgren he was planning to retire.
It didn't happen, and three years later, Favre and Holmgren are still around.
"Here we go again," Holmgren said. "It'll be a fun game for me."
The coach couldn't resist a joke about his and Favre's past.
"After the game, I'm going to hop on their plane and tell him I'm coming back," Holmgren said with a grin, "just like he did to me."
O-line shuffle, again
The loss of tackle Sean Locklear to a dislocated toe—on the game's final play—delayed the Seahawks' celebration after their 23-20 victory over the St. Louis Rams on Sunday.
Locklear, who missed the first two games of the season with a knee injury, likely won't practice this week and may not play in the final two games. X-rays and an MRI didn't reveal further damage to the toe, Holmgren said.
"It will be a challenge for him to get ready to play, though," Holmgren said. "It's very swollen. He had some bleeding, as you might expect. We will kind of treat him probably until Saturday and then make a decision."
If the Seahawks have to go without Locklear, there won't be a single projected 2008 starter on the offensive line for at least the next game. The preliminary plan, Holmgren said, is to keep everyone at their positions—Ray Willis at right tackle, Mansfield Wrotto at right guard, Steve Vallos at center and Floyd Womack at left guard—and bring second-year pro Kyle Williams up to play left tackle. Williams was on the practice squad until Nov. 26 and had played sparingly since.
Starting left tackle Walter Jones was placed on injured reserve Monday, and the Seahawks signed quarterback Jeff Rowe to take Jones' place on the roster. Rowe, a Cincinnati Bengals fifth-round draft pick in 2007, was the Bengals' third quarterback in 2007.
Locklear, who has played right tackle throughout his career, played the past two games at left tackle in place of Jones. But Locklear isn't the left tackle of the near future, at least in Holmgren's view.
"No one's going to play left tackle until Walter Jones decides he doesn't want to play anymore," Holmgren said. "That's the bottom line on that deal."
NOTES
—QB Matt Hasselbeck (back injury) is facing another week of being the team's emergency third quarterback. He has yet to be cleared to play, not passing doctors' tests on the bulging disk in his back.
—LB Leroy Hill (shoulder) is not yet strong enough to be able to play.