Tag Archives: Mike Holmgren

Hutch poison pill: The rest of the story

February 2, 2018 cc 1 Comment

Hutch KJR Steve Hutchinson is back in Minnesota this weekend for another big opportunity, 12 years after he left Seattle in one of the most infamous free agency moves in NFL history.

As he waits to learn whether he will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year, making the media rounds in Minneapolis, he has discussed his off-field legacy almost as much as what he did on the field.

Most of the Hutch Poison Pill story is well-known by Seahawks fans, but Mike Holmgren and Hutchinson got together on KJR on Thursday and revealed some more details of one of the most dramatic stories in NFL free agency history.

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Franchise history, Trades

Will Hawks & Pack trade another GM?

January 7, 2018 cc Leave a comment

John Schneider drafting Are the Seahawks and Packers about to engage in another deal involving a football boss?

In 1999, the Seahawks sent the Packers a second-round pick for Mike Holmgren, who became Seattle’s coach and general manager. Among the former Packers personnel guys Holmgren hired early in his Seattle tenure was John Schneider, who then bounced back to Green Bay in 2002 and returned to Seattle to join Pete Carroll in 2010.

Now, 19 years after that Holmgren trade, the Packers reportedly are trying to get Schneider back for a third stint with the team.

The Seahawks reportedly turned down the Packers’ request to interview Schneider, so the story is over unless: (1) Schneider really wants to go back to Green Bay and (2) the Packers want to give up a draft pick or two for him.

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Franchise history, Week 14: At Green Bay

Hawks, Pack meet again

December 9, 2016 cc Leave a comment

The Seahawks are headed back to Green Bay this weekend to renew one of the best non-division rivalries in the NFL — the fifth time in five years they will have faced each other.

While the Hawks (8-3-1) fight to hold on to the No. 2 seed in the NFC, the Pack (6-6) is trying to get back in the hunt. It’s just the latest dramatic meeting between the two franchises, which have been deeply intertwined since 1999.

Newer Seahawks fans might think the Packers-Seahawks series consists of three games: the Hawks’ infamous Fail Mary victory on a Monday night in 2012, Seattle’s 20-point win in the opening game of 2014 and Seattle’s miracle comeback in a 28-22 overtime win in the NFC title game.

But this series was full of great matchups back when Mike Holmgren and quarterback Matt Hasselbeck were leading the Hawks against their old team — led by Brett Favre — and this will be the 13th meeting since 1999.

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CHAWK LINES, Week 2: At Los Angeles

September 15, 2016 cc Leave a comment

CHAWK LINES -- Seahawks at Rams

Russell Wilson said he will be “ready to roll” against the Rams.

The trip to Los Angeles will be special for Pete Carroll and all of the California Seahawks.

Carroll explained this week’s roster decisions at corner and fullback.

Earl Thomas said he was so upset about his play vs. Miami that he quickly left without showering.

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Schedule, Super Bowl XL, Week 12: Pittsburgh

Here’s why Big Ben has never played in Seattle

November 26, 2015 cc Leave a comment

Big Ben Steelers A lot is being made of the fact that Seattle is the only place Ben Roethlisberger has not played in his 12-year career, but the fact is he and the Steelers were supposed to come in 2011. And then the NFL changed the scheduling rules.

Starting in 2010, teams from the East no longer had to make two trips to the West in a season. The Steelers were slated to go to San Francisco and Seattle in 2011, but the NFL swapped Seattle out for Arizona, and the Seahawks ended up going to Pittsburgh.

The Seahawks have played in Pittsburgh twice since the infamous Super Bowl XL, getting shut out both times — Mike Holmgren’s Super Bowl remnants lost 21-0 in Mike Tomlin’s first year leading the Steelers in 2007, and Pete Carroll’s rebuilding club lost 24-0 in 2011.

This meeting comes on the 10-year anniversary of the Super Bowl XL season, and the Steelers had a reunion of that team a few weeks ago. Four players — Roethlisberger, tight end Heath Miller, linebacker James Harrison and long snapper Greg Warren — remain on the Steelers from that Super Bowl team.

Roethlisberger joked to Seattle media, “That’s how you know you’re old — when they’re doing reunions and you’re still playing.”

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Franchise history, NFL history, State of the team

Will Kam be to Seattle as Emmitt was to Dallas?

September 24, 2015 cc Leave a comment

The 0-2 Seahawks have an 11 percent chance to make the playoffs and a 1 percent chance to win the Super Bowl, history says (just three of 204 teams that started 0-2 have done it since the playoffs expanded in 1990).

One of those teams was the 1993 Dallas Cowboys.

Will Kam Chancellor play the role of Emmitt Smith, who similarly sat out the first two games in a contract dispute? Smith came back for Week 3 and the Cowboys won 12 of the final 14 games and earned a second straight Super Bowl win.

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Week 2: At Green Bay

Hawks-Packers packed with drama since 1999

September 16, 2015 cc Leave a comment

As the Seahawks prepare to travel to Green Bay for the first time since 2009 — and the first time under Pete Carroll — the Packers are itching for revenge.

They won’t tell you that; but, after their 2014 season started and ended with embarrassing losses to the Seahawks — one by blowout and the other via historic comeback/meltdown — of course they want retribution.

It’s just the latest dramatic meeting between the two franchises, which have been deeply intertwined since 1999.

This will be the first in-season trip back to Green Bay for John Schneider since he left the Packers to become Seattle’s GM in 2010. It also will be besieged OC Darrell Bevell’s first game back in his home state since he was coaching the Vikings in 2010. It also will mark the return of one-time Wisconsin star Russell Wilson.

Newer Seahawks fans — and there are plenty of them — might think the Packers-Seahawks series consists of three games: the Hawks’ infamous Fail Mary victory on a Monday night in 2012, Seattle’s 20-point win in the opening game of last season and Seattle’s miracle comeback in a 28-22 overtime win in the NFC title game.

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CHAWK LINES

July 26, 2015 cc Leave a comment

The latest in Russell Wilson talks: The Hawks reportedly have offered a deal worth $21 million per year but paying less than $20 million in 2015.

Field Gulls said the Hawks offered $54 million guaranteed last month. Former Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, who once was John Schneider’s boss, apparently has heard the Hawks’ offer, too, and thinks it is “very fair” and Wilson should take it. Easy for him to say, of course.

The gossip queens went wild over Mike Sando’s QB survey, which placed Wilson eighth or something. We couldn’t care less. (And no, it has no impact on his contract situation.)

Meanwhile, Wilson is working on his boxing in San Diego ahead of training camp starting Friday.

Word also came that the Seahawks are closing in on a deal with Bobby Wagner.

Ricardo Lockette wrote that he refuses to watch a replay of the ill-fated pass at the end of the Super Bowl. But he said Wilson told him, “We’re going to get back there; and, if we’re in that same position again, I’m going to throw you the ball again. We’re going to get it done. I trust you.”

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Contracts

More indicators that Wilson’s agent is being unreasonable

July 23, 2015 cc Leave a comment

We’ve long suspected that Russell Wilson’s agent, Mark Rodgers, was going to be a problem for the Seahawks in contract negotiations, and it is becoming increasingly clear that he is indeed the problem.

The most recent tidbits over the last couple of days come from some guys with a little insider info: former Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren and Field Gulls.

On Wednesday, Holmgren said on KJR-AM that the offer he has heard is “very fair” and “the Seahawks are not lowballing” Wilson. Of course, that is coming from a guy who has always been on the management side of such talks. But Holmgren has been involved in enough deals to know what is fair.

Add to his comments what the guys at Field Gulls said in their podcast Thursday: They were told last month by a trusted source that the Seahawks had offered Wilson $54 million in guaranteed money, which would match the record amount the Packers gave Aaron Rodgers in 2013.

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History, Super Bowl XL, Super Bowl XLIX

XL and XLIX losses share much in common

February 3, 2015 cc Leave a comment

Lockette tripped — The non-call on Malcolm Butler’s trip of Ricardo Lockette in the fourth quarter cost the Seahawks at least 20 yards. (Click to enlarge)

The Seahawks are 1-2 in Super Bowls now, and both losses were steeped in controversy afterward — XL because of a handful of questionable officials’ calls, XLIX because of one questionable coaches’ call.

But they shared a lot more than that in common.

According to ESPN stats, those two teams were the only ones in the 49-year history of the Super Bowl to come out ahead in turnovers and yards and come out behind on the scoreboard — a stunning stat that tells you the Seahawks certainly were not worse than the teams they lost to in those Super Bowls.

Mike Holmgren’s Seahawks outgained Bill Cowher’s Pittsburgh Steelers 396 yards to 339 and won the turnover battle 2-1. Pete Carroll’s Seahawks outgained Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots 396 to 377 and won the turnover battle 2-1.

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