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To: Andy Thomas who wrote (10384)	12/14/2001 8:57:05 AM
From: Augustus Gloop	Read Replies (2) of 45644

A Holmgren Retrospect <<holmgren was getting slammed by some callers on the local radio show the other day. it's as though he's always one step behind>> Let me tell you about Mike Holmgren in a way only a Green Bay fan could. This guy came to Green Bay and was a model citizen. He ran a tight ship but he always handled himself well with the media - very controlled. From the outside he was the perfect coach and did a great job with player development. As a fan though, you always knew that behind closed doors he did plenty of ass chewing which was OK. The results were there. The one lingering fear I always had was that I think he wanted to go back to SF. While GB may be a historic franchise I can see the desire to live in a bigger city especially since he thought of SF as home. In 1996 he took us to the Superbowl against New England / Bill Pacrels. The week before we watched Parcels be evasive with the media with regard to his future with the Pats. That seemed to cause some dissension among the team and IMO played a role in the Packers victory over them. In 1997 the Packers were potentially a better team than the 96 team and once again found themselves in the Superbowl against another very solid team - The Broncos. This year was different though. This year there were teams interested in Holmgren. Everyone knew the Seahawks were interested in offering both coach and GM to Holmgren. After watching what happened to the Pats the year before I was sure Holmgren wouldn't let this become an issue. His written contract didn't allow for the move anyhow although there may have been oral agreements to the contrary - that we will never know. What followed was amazing! Not only did Holmgren seem interested in the potential offer but he seemed to revel in the media spotlight. This was both unexpected and a side of Holmgren that we had never seen. After all, he was being paid TOP DOLLAR as a coach and was going to have the keys to the most storied franchise in the NFL when GM Ron Wolf retired. This created some controversy before the game and that year we lost to the Broncos. Now don't get me wrong - the Broncos were very good that year and it was a great game. But many were left wondering how our Mike Holmgren could have shown interest in coaching another team before the Superbowl was even played? After all, we had watched that very thing happen the year before with Parcels and at least I felt that it handicapped his team to a degree. I think this PISSED Ron Wolf off to no end. The result was Holmgren was told he had a contract to fulfill and that leaving for Seattle was not going to happen. At that point he demanded that a clause be put in his contract that said if he received an offer for both Coach and GM he had the right to take it. Again this was a side of Holmgren we had never seen. He knew he would be both coach and GM of the Packers in a few years but his ego was running wild! We were shocked. The next season the team was flat. Everyone in the state knew Holmgren intended to leave even though he denied it. That year we saw explosions on the sidelines, confrontations with fans and general team disarray. This was not the Mike Holmgren we had gotten to know. AGAIN WE WERE SHOCKED! His Attitude sucked and we ended up getting knocked out of the playoffs in the first round. 10 days later he was gone. The season had been a bust, a total scam. He never intended to stay and in fact I think he and Paul Allen were guilty of tampering by NFL standards. At this point I think Ron Wolf (who I consider to be a much better football operations guy) was seething. Had we known what Holmgren was going to conduct himself that way in 1998 ( not just leaving but the fan clashes and explosions ) we would have fired him. His conduct was reprehensible. Fast forward to today. I think what we are seeing today is a guy who is overwhelmed. He's still a great coach but now he has all of the GM aspects to deal with and I think that is interfering with his job as coach. Not too many GM/Coach combos have been successful in recent years and Holmgren seems to be having the same problem. The shame is he still has a brilliant offensive mind and I believe is a great coach! But his ego took over in 1998 and he parted ways with Wolf. Quietly I think Wolf hated Holmgren for the way he handled it. The two men together were a great team and each complimented the others abilities. With Wolfs history of success he had many reasons to be an egomaniac yet held his ego in check very well. To Holmgrens credit he did too for 6 years. But when he got a taste of notoriety the ego kicked in and he was gone. The sad fact is that just 2 short years later Mike Holmgren could have been both Coach and GM of the Packers. A team with a still young Hall Of Fame QB that he had developed in a city that thought he could do no wrong. He would have been a couple years wiser and had the chance to work a little longer with a very capable GM in Ron Wolf. When history looks back on the Packers they wont view the 96 Superbowl team as Homgrens achievement it will be viewed as the team Ron Built. As both a football fan and a Packer fan I will forever be left wondering what if? I also wonder if Holmgren will ever be man enough to admit that he may have made a mistake. He didn't just leave a team....leaving a team is fine - its business. He acted like an asshole and burned a bridge. That is not fine - never was - never will be.

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