Mike Holmgren Guys Quotations

If you are hurt and can't play or practice, and then the other guys come in and make a case for themselves, you've got to look at that. Before we make any decisions there, we've got to find out what they say in Alabama.

They all get about 25 snaps a game and they've been doing a nice job. For big guys inside, I think it's a good way to do it as long as the talent level there is close.

It happens, because now you're down to one game, and anything can happen in any one game. But I think if you look over percentages over the last however many years, most of the times the guys that are playing at home have the advantage. So we're choosing to look at it that way.

It's like, OK, we're playing the game and those guys are upstairs doing whatever they are doing,

The next two weeks are absolutely critical for a fair amount of guys on the team because its very competitive in about four positions.

He's the type of runner that, you get 1 (yard), 1, 30, ... You can probably say that about a number of guys in the league. Then you have the guys that (run for) 3, 3, 4, 3, 4, 3.

My feeling is, for the short term, at least prior to the bye, we are going to go with the guys we got. If we feel that we have to do something there and add some depth, we will.

Randy was, in my opinion, the best. He really was the best. We played against him so many times; there aren't many guys like him around.

Anytime someone wants to compare me to Joe Gibbs, it's a compliment. He's one off the guys that if I could pattern my coaching after, he would certainly be one of the guys I've admired for a long, long time. He's one of the best ever.

I talk about that a lot. I think if you asked one of my players, they'd probably tell you I kill them with that stuff. Just being careful. It's the last thing I told them Sunday night after we broke from the stadium after the game. After this incident, it gave me another opportunity because they were listening. I mean for the guys who kind of tuned me out before, now I had everybody listening and we talked about it, which, I think, is my responsibility as a coach. You know these guys are my family, and it would be like talking to your own kids, you don't want bad things to happen to them so let's try to help them a little bit.

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.

That team (Green Bay) was a little bit more of a star team. We had more than a couple guys that were really pretty well known at their positions throughout the country and went to Pro Bowls. Our team now, even though we are fortunate to have a number of players go to the Pro Bowl, is really a team in the truest sense of the word.

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.

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.

I had all those young guys in Green Bay all at once. It was a little scary having all young quarterbacks, but boy, what quality they all turned out to be.

Michael has good instincts and good breaks on the ball. He's not undisciplined. Some of those guys who seem to be where the action is all the time are a little bit undisciplined.

The other guys have to crank it up a notch.

The unusual part ... our team isn't a very penalized team, in general. In Super Bowls in general, they let the guys play. Put those two things together, and it was a little unusual, and they were very, very costly, obviously.

It's almost impossible not to pick those guys if you need a quarterback because they don't come around very often.

He's one of those guys that when you prepare for them, you better have a plan to make it a little more difficult for him. Otherwise, he can take over a game by himself.

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.

He kind of set the tone for all those guys inside. And they've played well. He was a little like what John Randle was like for us a couple years ago.

I can't tell you how long it's going to be. The cartilage and scopes typically can be two weeks, guys come back in two weeks, sometimes it's longer. We just have to see how it is.

He was very sorry and apologized to me. He did not want anything like this to be a distraction. He really does realize that the players represent the community and he is one of the guys that would like to be a role model in this community. He realizes that this has been a negative thing in what should be a feel-good week for us.

Our guys are ready to handle this (game) maybe better than they have handled it in the past. It's coming from the feeling I get when I go down in the locker room, and the feeling I get on the airplane and different things. They're having fun playing. The cynics aren't around here so much anymore.