Mike Holmgren
Mike Holmgren
Michael George Holmgrenis a former American football coach and executive, most recently serving as president of the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League. Holmgren began his NFL career as a quarterbacks' coach and later as an offensive coordinator with the San Francisco 49ers, where they won Super Bowl XXIII and XXIV. He served as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers from 1992 to 1998, appearing in two Super Bowls, and of the Seattle Seahawks from 1999 to...
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth15 June 1948
CitySan Francisco, CA
I think that can be overstated just a little bit. If you have a very untalented guy who is a high-effort guy, you are going to lose every week. You like them like that, but the better player is going to win more games for you. The trick is finding those guys that are really fine football players and really don't think they are that great; they are always trying to get better.
It happens, because now you're down to one game, and anything can happen in any one game. But I think if you look over percentages over the last however many years, most of the times the guys that are playing at home have the advantage. So we're choosing to look at it that way.
I think the world of him and I think he is a really good football player. I set the bar very high for him. Anytime he falls short of that, fair or not fair, I will talk to him about it. He is a wonderful guy ... and he wants to do well. To go with his physical ability, all the things you have to do to be a great player, it should happen for him.
Our guys are ready to handle this (game) maybe better than they have handled it in the past. It's coming from the feeling I get when I go down in the locker room, and the feeling I get on the airplane and different things. They're having fun playing. The cynics aren't around here so much anymore.
I talk about that a lot. I think if you asked one of my players, they'd probably tell you I kill them with that stuff. Just being careful. It's the last thing I told them Sunday night after we broke from the stadium after the game. After this incident, it gave me another opportunity because they were listening. I mean for the guys who kind of tuned me out before, now I had everybody listening and we talked about it, which, I think, is my responsibility as a coach. You know these guys are my family, and it would be like talking to your own kids, you don't want bad things to happen to them so let's try to help them a little bit.
Michael has good instincts and good breaks on the ball. He's not undisciplined. Some of those guys who seem to be where the action is all the time are a little bit undisciplined.
When you look at the two teams, (the Patriots) have been in more situations like this and they are more experienced than we are. They are a very veteran and smart team, and that's our goal, to get there. What I have to do is get our guys to believe they can be there. I believe we're going to be a better football team at the end of the year than we are right now because each game our young guys get better.
If a guy becomes available the caliber of Peter Warrick, I think we're going to bring him in, look at him, talk to him,
If a guy becomes available the caliber of a Peter Warrick, we're probably going to bring him in. I think then you're doing your due diligence. I'm looking for a guy to catch every pass we throw to him.
If you are hurt and can't play or practice, and then the other guys come in and make a case for themselves, you've got to look at that. Before we make any decisions there, we've got to find out what they say in Alabama.
He kind of set the tone for all those guys inside. And they've played well. He was a little like what John Randle was like for us a couple years ago.
He was very sorry and apologized to me. He did not want anything like this to be a distraction. He really does realize that the players represent the community and he is one of the guys that would like to be a role model in this community. He realizes that this has been a negative thing in what should be a feel-good week for us.
But we're in as good a position as any team to absorb that. Our attitude has always been the next guy steps in, and off you go.
The other guys have to crank it up a notch.