KIRKLAND – He hears it.
He feels it, he sees it, he swelters in it.
No matter how much he tries to block it all out, Mike Holmgren hears the blabber.
Fans are angry and frustrated, and Holmgren is their main target. If there was ever any question about his dwindling popularity in Seattle, he is reminded of it every time he walks toward the Qwest Field tunnel after a loss.
“As much as I try to avoid it, I hear it, and I’m human,” Holmgren said Wednesday. “I’m disappointed (in the Seahawks’ 6-6 record). I’m as disappointed as anybody at some of the things that have happened.”
The organization doesn’t make it a point to talk about front-office personnel issues during the season, so for now Holmgren’s job security is something for fans to dispute on their own.
Many are mad at the way his team has given up double-digit, fourth quarter leads in two games this season – most recently during Monday’s 43-39 loss to Dallas. They’ve questioned his play-calling, his motivational tactics, and his ability to coach this team.
Holmgren looks at Seattle’s .500 record and knows why so many fans are disappointed.
“I understand the emotion,” he said. “The expectation level is high. Believe me: it was high, and is high, for me. I don’t expect the fan to understand some of the business side of a franchise that sometimes has to take place.
“Our fans understand: the bottom line is winning and losing, and they’re passionate about their football team. I can understand that feeling, I really can.”
So what could he have done differently? Using the benefit of hindsight, there are plenty of Monday-morning-quarterbacks who have advice. But Holmgren’s not ready to set up a 1-800 help line.
“My commitment and what we’re trying to accomplish has never wavered,” he said. “I’ll keep coaching the same way. If I had a chance to talk to those folks one-on-one, I think I could kind of explain some things. But that’s never the case.”
Holmgren is as frustrated as anyone with Seattle’s 3-6 record over the past nine weeks. Twelve games into the season, he’s still trying to figure out what makes the Seahawks tick.
His frustration has been at an all-time high, and the 56-year-old Holmgren admitted recently that the losses have taken a heavier toll on him than they did earlier in his career.
“You take too many body blows – boom-boom – pretty soon you can’t take so many anymore,” Holmgren said Wednesday.
Since coming to Seattle in 1999, Holmgren has a 47-45 record in regular season games and is winless in two trips to the playoffs. He has already lost the title of general manager, but appeared to turn things around as a head coach by leading the Seahawks to the playoffs last season.
Holmgren has led his teams off to fast starts in each of the past two seasons, only to see the Seahawks go 9-13 in October, November and December.
Standard to team policy, no one in the front office is talking about Holmgren’s future.
No one but Holmgren, that is.
“My future is Minnesota,” he said, referring to Sunday’s opponent. “That’s my future. Then my future after that will be the Jets (for a Dec. 19 game).
“All that other stuff is for another time and other people. I’m just going to do what I do and coach the way I coach and try and get us into the playoffs.”
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