Mike Holmgren is retired. For Good. Maybe.
In a profile of the 66-year-old former coach of the Packers and Seahawks, Greg Bishop of the MMQB.com leaves the clear impression that Holmgren might still have the itch to get back in.
He’s still cruising through the final months of his contract as the Browns president, a stint that ended poorly. And that may be why he is thinking about getting back in.
“That will be it, pretty much,” he said. “Unless something big comes up.”
Big names such as Holmgren (or Jon Gruden, or Brian Billick) can find it hard to get back in, or at least in the right spot. And post-football work as a television analyst or radio host is frankly a lot easier than coaching, but the draw is undeniable.
“I know guys who coached after 65,” he said. “I thought I would. The more I’m moving away from it, it’s flattering when you get a call from somebody. It strokes your ego. Then you start to think, Hey, I could do that! I mean, I miss it. I miss the coaching. I miss it.”
“I’m quote-unquote retired, . . .I’m semi-retired.”
That kind of ambivalence is not uncommon among old coaches, and the portrait Bishop paints of Holmgren is of a man torn. He knows the grind, he knows the stress, and he knows the access to his family he has now won’t be the same if he gets back in.
But it sounds obvious he wants back in.