For weeks, the rumor mill has been buzzing regarding the possibility that former Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren (and, for a few years, G.M.) could return to the franchise in an upper-level executive position like the one held by Bill Parcells with the Dolphins.
Fueling the rumors has been the tenuous status of current G.M. Tim Ruskell, whose contract expires after the current season.
Then there are rumors that Ruskell already has been told he won’t be coming back.
The latest? Holmgren, if hired, would then try to lure Jon Gruden to become the new head coach.
The team had been silent about the situation. According to Greg Johns of the SeattlePI.com, the team feels that the rumors don’t warrant a response.
Still, coach Jim Mora responded, sort of.
“I have not seen those reports,” Mora said, per Johns. “We’ve been pretty involved with St. Louis Rams clean-up and San Francisco prep. We live in a cave. We’re cavemen.”
(Geico just got a new idea . . . “So easy, a football coach could do it.”)
We don’t expect the Seahawks to acknowledge the potential merit of any of the rumors, especially since any suggestion that Holmgren has been targeted would make it difficult to comply with the Rooney Rule, which now applies to the top football position in the organization.
But the fact remains that Ruskell’s contract expires after the season. If the team wanted to keep him beyond that, his contract already would be extended. The fact that it hasn’t makes us think that he won’t be back.