Mike Holmgren Football Quotations

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.