While I think Mike Holmgren is a pretty solid coach, I've always felt he was a bit overrated (before the Super Bowl, one of the common stories was about the tremendous job Holmgren has done since he gave up personnel responsibilities).  Sunday's performance did nothing to change my mind. 

            But after I recently read about Holmgren's motivational techniques, my opinion of him dropped another couple of notches.  Apparently, in an attempt to inspire his players, Holmgren showed the team $73,000 - the winner's share - in $1 bills the Saturday night before the Super Bowl, according to The New York Post.  The loser's share is $38,000.

            Does this make sense to anyone?  This just seems absolutely insane to me.  Maybe I'm overreacting, but I can't stop thinking that Holmgren is completely out of touch with reality.  These players are facing the biggest game of their lives, they're already millionaires and can make history by bringing the first championship to Seattle - and Holmgren thinks that the extra $35,000 (the difference between the winning and losing) is the most important factor to the players.   

            The weird part is that Holmgren has won a championship before with the Green Bay Packers, so you would think he would make decisions based on past experience.  I'm trying to imagine Brett Favre, Antonio Freeman and LeRoy Butler sitting in the locker room, all of them smoking cigars and celebrating the fact that they were now $73,000 richer.  Granted, I wasn't there, but I have a hard time believing that's what happened.      

            Initially, I thought maybe Holmgren just didn't give much thought to his speech so it turned out lame.  But that can't be it - think about the effort it would take to get $73,000 in $1 bills on a Saturday.  You obviously just can't do on the spur of the moment - a likely scenario is that he came up with the idea on Thursday, had someone get the money on Friday and then gave the speech on Saturday.  So even after three days, this still seemed like a good idea to Holmgren. 

            If I was a Seahawks fan, I would be concerned.  It's not that I think the motivational speech is important because I think a lot of the rah-rah stuff is forgotten as soon as the game starts.  It's just that it shows an amazing lack of common sense by the head coach who is supposed to lead your team to the promised land.  When you think about it, are you surprised that this man couldn't figure out how to manage the clock (kick the field goal!) at the end of the game?        

            Um, that's it.  Just wanted to let everyone know that Holmgren might be delusional.  

***********************************************

             Last note on the Super Bowl: After the big game, I typically feel a little bummed out that football season is over.  But after all the whining from Seattle fans and the ridiculous rants of Pittsburgh fans, I'm sick of football.  I just want it to go away.  It's like when I have a bad round of golf, I don't care if I play for another month.  So thank you, Seahawks and Steelers fans, for providing such an excruciating experience - it is much easier to move on now.