Mike Holmgren Seriously Considered Returning to the Sidelines

According to an interview with a Seattle radio station, team president Mike Holmgren stated that he considered returning to the sidelines to coach the Cleveland Browns before finally hiring Pat Shurmur. Holmgren sought the advice of his staff, all of whom would have supported his endeavor to step in as head coach. He decided against it after consulting with his wife.

The folks over at Waiting for Next Year have a nice recap of Holmgren's interview, along with a cut-up version of the radio interview.

I am not surprised that Holmgren considered being the Browns head coach, but based on what he portrayed to the press, I am surprised at how serious he seemed at stepping down, going so far as to see what Randy Lerner thought about it. Here is the question I have: what benefit does this revelation have? The only thing I see Holmgren's revelation doing is leading people to suspect even more that Shurmur is nothing more than a puppet-coach. Some things should be kept quiet, and in order to show more confidence in Shurmur, I think Holmgren should have kept mum.

Feel free to discuss Holmgren's full interview here; give it a listen.