Mike Holmgren Ball Quotations

Darrell was very much ready to play this football game. He came up big today.

The only thing I can think of (for the Steelers being favored) is that they beat Indianapolis, which was a huge win for them. Indy was having a great, great year and is a great football team. And that popped Pittsburgh, as it should.

One of the differences to our start this year is they are catching the ball real well. It makes it fun. I'm sure it makes it fun for Matt because he has confidence he can go anywhere with the ball. And then I have confidence that I can call just about anything I want.

Honestly, when Bill and I visit, we don't talk about football as much as we do about our families. He tells me about his three daughters, I tell him about my four daughters. We're both very proud of our daughters. We've both been married to our wives since college. What it shows to me is, even though this business can be difficult on families, we've got strong ones.

That was very distasteful to me, to retaliate so to speak like that (against the Vikings). I do believe the commissioner should look into these kind of clauses. We work so hard on trying to gain labor peace and a new collective bargaining agreement and then we as clubs allow agents to get cute and circumvent it. On the playing field there are rules and there are unwritten rules about how the game should be played in the spirit and the fairness of it all. It doesn't make sense to me that we had to lose such a fine football player this way. I was surprised by the ruling.

That was very distasteful, our having to jump into something like that and retaliate, so to speak. I was very surprised that the special master came back with the ruling he did. It doesn't make any sense to me. But he did. And we lost a very fine football player.

Today wasn't our day, that's for sure. When you play a team like that on the road, you can't turn the ball over. That's an overused term, but it's appropriate today. That was probably the story of the game.

The Seattle football fans have probably gone through some stuff in their history, ... and now we want to give our fans a team they can be proud of, where they can be excited about it, talk about it and have hope.

I don't think Jeremy had both feet on the ground when the ball came out.

Our trainers thought it would be good to give him a rest throwing the ball today.

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.

We needed to do that, to control the ball with our running game, and obviously, that was one of the keys to the game.

At the end of the year, if you have a guy who scores 20 touchdowns, gains 1,500 yards, goes to the Pro Bowl, does all those things, you're probably happy you have him, ... And Shaun, I'm glad we have him. If you can have a guy not get hurt and play for you all season long, that will be a positive for your football team.

He is a lifelong football personnel man. Personnel people, they have a passion for it. They want to help the head coach. They want to give him the best players they can give him. And it creates a real healthy trust and working relationship. Bob's first love, as you know, was basketball. And he was taking on a lot of jobs. It's different now, because Tim is a lifelong football guy. We have a good relationship.

He is much more confident. He sees things much better. I can put much more on his plate now and be confident in his handling it. He is ready to play a fine football game.

My reputation when I was first here was that I had every single answer in the book. I don't know, maybe I portrayed that somehow. I was learning, and I continue to learn and I have learned.

The great ones don't come cheap.

Listen to what I tell you and do it. If you do, three things can happen: One, it will work and you'll get credit. Two, it won't work and I'll get the blame. Three, you'll do it wrong and you'll be gone.

As he explained to me exactly what happened, I believe I understand what happened. At that point I have made the decision that he will play in the football game.

As happy as the other locker room is, that's how disappointed we are. I think we were careless with the football and had too many penalties. And that combination against a good team like Pittsburgh is not a good combination.

Heck, I get excited about it just like any coach would, particularly if you think it cost you a ball game. The fact is, it's a tough job. Officials have a tough job. They're honest guys doing the best they can.

We were careless with the football, and we made too many mistakes. And when you play a good team like the Steelers, that's not a good combination.

I know they're not OK with it. I wanted them to keep their heads up. There's no need to apologize for anything. We lost the football game and we lost it because of the reasons you lose most games ... mistakes.

It was good that they had to pass the ball a lot in the second half. He didn't have to get up in there too much.

There were a couple of times we could have gotten the ball to Peter, and they probably would have been pretty good plays, and we just didn't throw it to him. He's going to get nothing but better. He's a good addition for us.

There were some guys who made some great plays, but we did drop the ball uncharacteristically. ...We played against a good team, and you can't overcome those things.

He came out of that game pretty sore. Washington is a tough physical defensive football team, and we got banged around a little bit, but both he and Engram practiced today.

Whoever is playing, I expect them to play well. We want to win the football game. Every time we suit up, we're going after a win. But it is different because you do have certain things wrapped up now.

We just changed some of our packages so it gets to be seen more. Plus, everybody knows that this could be my last year here so everybody is kind of paying attention to everything.

He's a wonderful young man and a great football player -- let me say those things first,

We went through all that craziness with dropping the ball -- not just Darrell, but all the receivers. Now we're catching balls. I don't have a good answer for you (as to why).

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.

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 was a sad thing what happened to Kenny. The good part is that he has healed up. What his football future is, I can't tell you right now. I'm somewhat optimistic about it. He will be there with us Sunday. He has had an emotional impact on this football team before he was hurt and certainly after the injury. My hope and prayer is that he will be able to continue playing football next year.

I am very pleased to announce that we were able to raise over $190,000 for Northwest Medical Teams tonight for people in the New Orleans area. A football game seems rather trivial when you consider what those folks are going through.

I think that has always stuck with me. I put the ball in the hands of the best player in the world, in a fairly safe pass and I almost lost the game for our team. That stuck with me a long time in that situation.

We haven't quite gotten to where I had hoped we'd get to. But this season has certainly felt good, and I'm very proud of the football team so far.

is that he's just not passionate enough about football. But when we started talking basketball he got excited. I think he's going to get his rookie paycheck and cruise. He also didn't do well in the psychological profiling we did on him.