Originally published Tuesday, December 16, 2008 at 12:00 AM
Mike Holmgren plans to walk final lap after Jets game
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...
Seattle Times staff reporter
RENTON — 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 protégé, 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 has 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.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
UPDATE - 07:23 AM
NFL, union resume labor talks at mediator's office
League, players still almost $800 million apart on revenue haring
Union, league negotiators to resume talks Monday | NFL
No new deal in NFL labor talks; deadline extended

general classifieds
Garage & estate salesFurniture & home furnishings
Electronics
just listed
More listings
POST A FREE LISTING
- Records give rare look at how feds probed one reporter
- Kemper Freeman plans $1.2 billion expansion in Bellevue
- Earthquake scenarios show potential for huge damage, loss of life
- Pete Carroll on Seahawks' off-field problems: "It's real serious"
- Huge tornado hits Oklahoma City suburb, kills 51
- NBA player Terrence Williams arrested in Kent for gun threats
- Poverty hits home in local suburbs like S. King County
- Police: Brother-in-law ‘heavily involved’ in disposal of Susan Powell’s body
- Records: Slain intruder showed signs of mental breakdown
- Seattle’s NBA hopes still high as league warms to expansion
- IRS office was perplexed, inundated with tax-exempt applications
372 - Game thread: Hisashi Iwakuma tries to play 'stopper' for Mariners
278 - Guest: Stop using the term ‘illegal immigrants’
149 - Mariners can't close Indians out, lose it 10-8 in 10th
143 - UW Medicine, Catholic health system to have ‘strategic affiliation’
107 - Tornadoes slam Plains, Midwest; 1 dead in Okla.
86 - A few things to take away from this heartbreaking Mariners series
79 - More Obama aides knew of IRS audit; Obama not told
77 - Don't worry Husky football fans, we'll have you covered
67 - Carney: Senior White House staff knew of IRS probe
59
- Kemper Freeman plans $1.2 billion expansion in Bellevue
- UW Medicine, Catholic health system to have ‘strategic affiliation’
- Earthquake scenarios show potential for huge damage, loss of life
- Community Dinners church nourishes bodies, souls
- Poverty hits home in local suburbs like S. King County
- China’s wealthy paying cash for Eastside luxury homes
- deafReview gives a voice to deaf consumers
- UW expands online courses, this time from Harvard, MIT
- 129 concerts to see this summer
- Italy on the plate by way of Ballard | Taste



