Fans might not know better, but Holmgren should

[ffljaguar]

Seattle, once associated with coffee, should be better known now for the kind of fine whine derivative of sour grapes. You thought the Seahawks and their fans were beaten pretty soundly in the Super Bowl? They have been far bigger losers since.
Will you people shut up already?

A couple of debatable penalty flags fall the wrong way and you're going to start wincing and weeping and limping around on that lame crutch?
Aside to Team Mocha Latte: Your Seahawks lost 21-10 for lots of reasons primarily summarized in the technical phrase, ''played lousy.'' You know how Steelers fans swarmed Detroit by about a 10-1 margin over Seattle fans? That mirrored the Seahawks' shrunken team effort on the big stage.
There was no shame in losing the game. There has been much shame since.
You expect it from fans, maybe, after they have waited 30 years for a Super Bowl and their team cowers from the occasion and they're looking for a place for their disappointment. So they look for the easiest place.
DESPERATE NONSENSE

You even expect the woodwork to emit a few token conspiracy theorists with their grainy home movie that purports to show a man in a striped shirt on a grassy knoll. Yeah the game was fixed. Oh yes. Everybody was in on it but the Seahawks! (The head referee is sitting on a mountain of cash in Monaco today. Paul Tagliabue and Dan Rooney are with him and the three are high-fiving amid gales of maniacal laughter).
You expect that desperate nonsense from losing fans.
But you expect more from the beaten head coach. From him you expect a measure of grace. Some class. An assumption, dare say, of personal responsibility.
Instead Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren told a crowd waiting for the team in Seattle: ``I knew we were playing the Pittsburgh Steelers. I didn't know we were going to have to play the guys in the striped shirts as well.''
That's an egregious statement that should earn Holmgren a six-figure league fine and stain him for as long as he coaches.

It is almost stunning, unprecedented, to hear after a title game. Not in Super Bowl history have the winning team and whining team separated so clearly.
Holmgren insults the integrity of the NFL, its officials, the championship game result itself and, mostly, the Steelers, who deserve better.
Worse in some ways, he is excusing himself and his team from culpability. He is shifting blame from where it belongs -- in the mirror.
We've all heard the predictable jokes by now. Like, ''Ninety million people watched the game. Too bad they didn't include the officials.'' And, ``The Steelers had a victory parade. The grand marshal was [referee] Bill Leavy.''
TIME TO MAN UP

Meantime we're still waiting for Holmgren et al to man up.
Seattle was driving for a possible 17-14 lead until the most ill-timed, crucial interception imaginable. Matt Hasselbeck threw that ball, not the referee.
How about Holmgren managing the clock like a baboon trying to decipher a Rubik's cube? Are we blaming the officials for that, too?
Who was covering Hines Ward? The back judge?
How about Pittsburgh's trick-play scoring pass or Willie Parker's Super Bowl-record run? Were the guys in the striped shirts blocking Seahawk defenders?
Thanks largely to Holmgren and his blamers, history won't look kindly upon this Super Bowl. In the days since, nobody was talking about the scintillating football or the might of the Steelers. People were talking about a streaking sheep, a censored halftime show and the yellow flags.

Then there was the brouhaha over the suspicious no-shows by Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw from the pregame Super Bowl MVPs ceremony.
The San Francisco Chronicle and Newsday reported based on league sources that Montana boycotted because the league would not meet his demand for a $100,000 appearance fee. Bradshaw supposedly also skipped related to money.
Montana, for what it's worth, claims he missed to attend his sons' basketball games. Bradshaw also pulled a Van Gundy, saying he had family obligations.
Baloney. What a couple of ingrates. With five Super Bowl MVPs between them, this is the stage that allowed both men's fame, and they can't come back for a curtain call on the event's 40th anniversary?

The NFL gave its former MVPs first-class air fare for two, a Cadillac for the weekend, a hotel suite, two game tickets, tickets to the commissioner's party and two other private parties, plus $1,000 for ``incidentals.''
Yet Montana and Bradshaw wanted more? If you believe their excuses, it's still lame. The family would understand their being in Detroit an extra day. Both come off like guys protecting themselves from bullets with their families.

The only other living Super Bowl MVP to snub the ceremony was our own Jake Scott, the Dolphins' Super '70s safety, but he's in a whole different category.
Scott is a true iconoclast who has turned down every Dolphins function. He is Bobby Fischer, J.D Salinger. Scott supposedly couldn't attend because he was vacationing in Australia. Jake could have been visiting Flint and wouldn't have showed up.
Besides, nobody outside of a few venerable Dolfans missed Scott, while Montana and Bradshaw were conspicuous by their absence -- Montana as the most decorated, iconic Super Bowl star of all, Bradshaw for turning his back on his franchise.
Montana and Bradshaw should have been there, period.
But still not as much as Holmgren should have stood up and shouldered the Seahawks' loss instead of weakly pandering to his fans' misplaced emotions.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/columnists/greg_cote/13820417.htm

[DIESELMAN]

Amen to all that brother!! Don't hold your breathe on Dumbgren manning up,I had a little respect for the man before the game cuz of how he brought that team together(even though it took him 7 years)but I still had some respect for the man.But the way he totally disrespected Cowher after the game was over(that was the beginning of the end)is totally classless and petty.He is a child who can't grasp the concept of what a great coach is,to be a great coach one must handle adversity and losses and even wins with respect for the game and everyone that has played the game from the very beginning and to lead by example.....And yeah if I was the league I would lay a fine on his ass not because I'm a Steelers fan but because I am a football fan.....:helmet:

[4xSBChamps]

Seattle, once associated with coffee, should be better known now for the kind of fine whine derivative of sour grapes.
You thought the Seahawks and their fans were beaten pretty soundly in the Super Bowl? They have been far bigger losers since.
Will you people shut up already?
I was riding with a friend, in his car, when I heard local radio-show host Mark Madden (who I personally think is a 400-pound azz-hat ), who probably put it best a few days after SB-XL:

" ..... It's been said the Seattle is the suicide-capitol of America.....
after listening to them whine for several days after their team played poorly in the big-game, I can only offer them this advice:

FOLLOW YOUR HEART!!!!! "
:thud:

[AustinSeahawk]

FFLJaguar's original post is good, although I disagree with some of what you say about Holmgren. I think a lot of people are getting the wrong idea about him and want to clear them up.

First of all, regardless of which team you support, Super Bowl XL's officiating was more controversial than any previous Super Bowl. That is why most major NATIONAL media outlets featured the officiating as the big story the day after the Super Bowl, instead of showing Steelers celebrating, which would usually be expected.

Considering all the attention paid to the officiating, I am surprised (and pleased) that Holmgren has addressed the issue ONLY ONCE. The statement he made was clearly stated to placate the thousands of bitter Seahawk fans at the coming-home rally, many of whom were carrying signs and banners referring to the officiating. Had Holmgren NOT addressed the issue at all, the fans would feel like he didn't relate to them or empathize with them.

Secondly, I am sick and tired of everyone whining about how Holmgren didn't shake Cowher's hand after the game. I've explained this before, and it's been posted at ESPN and other sites if you don't believe me. Holmgren and Cowher both went to DIFFERENT 25 yard lines by mistake (not sure which one was in the wrong). They both waited for each other a few minutes, and by the time they realized the other coach was at the other end of the field, it was time for the losing team to clear the field to set up the victory speeches, etc.

Holmgren, who is a classy guy whether you want to believe it or not, chose to wait in the tunnel until the Steelers finished their speeches on national t.v., and then shook Cowher's hand in the tunnel after Cowher came off the field. He waited all that time BEFORE going into the Seattle locker room to address the team. It was the only classy thing he could do without running up to Cowher during the victory speeches just to shake his hand.

You can celebrate your victory all you want, you guys won the Super Bowl! But please don't try to villify a man who is one of the classier and most respected coaches in the league.

[BlackNGold203]

I'll say Holmgren's comments were certainly out of character...

It's one thing for a player to be overly emotional (Porter) right after the game..but this is a respected Head Coach...making the comments a full day after the game took place.

I truly believe that if the roles were reversed, Cowher would have put the responsibility where it belonged..with the players and coaches, not the officials.

That being said...Holmgren is a very good coach...who made a very dissappointing comment