Will this woman ever make up her mind?

Yeah, yeah, I've heard you all saying it!! First she loves Mike Holmgren, then she doesn't, yadda, yadda, yadda...

OK. Here it is. I will go on record today, January 4, 2004, stating that I like Coach Mike Holmgren.

There. I said it. And I meant it!

I know that I have been one of the harshest critics of Mike Holmgren in his tenure at Seattle. I was sucked in to the hype that he was going to lead us to the Promised Land and the Seahawks would no longer be "the team with potential" "on the cusp of greatness", aka, the best 8-8 team in the league. I bought the hype! You guys did, too! The flashback to the signing of Holmgren is right here on my site! Those were the good days!

Then I watched Holmgren cut player after player after player after beloved player. I saw him make questionable calls on the field that, in my opinion, were blatant errors of judgment. I listened to favorite players say negative things about Seattle as they enjoyed success with other franchises. I listened to Holmgren make excuses and change more personnel. It hurt. Ohhhh, how it hurt! I began to question his commitment to Seattle. Yes, his track record in Green Bay is impressive, but what had he done for US???

When I ventured out and made my feelings known, I took a lot of flack for opposing him, some from Seahawks fans who are very good friends. I made people angry. I stood by my position because that's how I saw it. I didn't like what Seattle was becoming. In 2002, a lot of fans came to my "side", if you will. Not that I was trying to rally anyone, I wanted more than anything to be proven wrong! But 2002 was a painful year and when the finger pointing started, it was aimed in Mike Holmgren's direction. I was already on that bandwagon.

The Seahawks organization made changes. They took some responsibilities away from Coach Holmgren to give him more time to focus on coaching. And it worked! We were winning games in 2003 -- struggling on the road, but winning consistently at home! #12 was back and it felt good! I wanted SO much to believe in Mike Holmgren. But I still didn't feel it. I wanted to see it in his eyes. I wanted to hear it in his voice. I, as a fan, wanted to be inspired by Coach Holmgren.

And then it happened.

Today.

January 4, 2004 in an overtime loss to Green Bay.

Mike Holmgren was faced with a decision. Like it or not, the Seahawks would be playing Green Bay in a winner-takes-all competition. Mike Holmgren had to go back to his beloved Green Bay Packers and put together a game plan that would defeat the man he refers to as "the son I never had". If he succeeded, he'd knock Brett Favre and the Packers out of the playoffs. If ever there was a test of loyalty and commitment, the play-off game between Seattle and Green Bay was it. Everything was on the line.

He coached it beautifully. It was apparent from the first defensive series that he had this team prepared for the game. We were pumped and we were feeling invincible! Intimidated? Hardly! We came with attitude! When bad things happened, Holmgren responded quickly by throwing the challenge flag or calling a player over to the sidelines to talk about it. You could feel the desire to win! It wasn't smack, it was desire! I've never been as proud of the 2003 Seahawks as I was today in this playoff game!

Sure, they made some mistakes. We lost the game in overtime on an interception thrown by Matt Hasselbeck. We all want that one back. But we remained competitive to the end, and that is saying a LOT because hardly anyone expected Seattle to be such a fierce contender against a very good Packer team at Lambeau Field in January.

I'm a believer.

Mike Holmgren finally convinced me that Seattle is his team and now I can't wait for the 2004 season! When the schedule comes out, I'm booking a flight to Seattle. I want to BE THERE when the mighty Seahawks make their run for the Super Bowl!!

From: Chris Brose Sent: Friday, March 05, 2004 5:35 PM Subject: I like Mike, but...

The most bummed I've been with Mike is when the Seahawks were at home playing the Dolphins. I don't remember the details precisely, but I seem to remember that it was late in the 3rd quarter, and the Hawks had the Fins on their one or two yard line. Marino had to make the play in his own end zone. Did we blitz? Did we send everyone in to crush Marino before he could react? Did we nail them for a safety or TD? Nope. Someone made a mamby-pamby call, and our three defensive linemen went up against their 5 blockers, which limited Marino to about two-and-a-half minutes of reaction time. Of course, he un-buried himself by completing a pass for double digit yards, the Dolphins went on to score, the Seahawks went on to lose... I almost turned in my Seahawk card.

But for what it's worth, I like Mike now, and have a great time wearing my Seahawk shirts down here in the lone star state.