Browns, Seahawks are set for Holmgren Bowl

Associated Press

Cleveland

On game day, he dresses like a banker or businessman, right down to the brief case.

Two years ago, Mike Holmgren swapped his coach’s wind breaker and headset for an expensive suit and tie. His new job required a major makeover.

If he visits the field today it will only be before kickoff. Then, Cleveland’s president will board an elevator and head upstairs to the press box where he’ll take his customary seat in a luxury suite high above Browns Stadium. He has an obstructed view of the visitor’s sideline.

When he looks down this week, the Seattle Seahawks will be there. Holmgren expects his spine to tingle.

“When you leave a place and then play against that team the first time, there is a little twinge there,” he said. “There is more emotion to it than most games.”

Now the man in charge of restoring Cleveland’s lost pro football pride, Holmgren will experience another reunion as the Browns (2-3) host the Seahawks (2-3) in a matchup of two young, struggling teams.

Holmgren spent 10 seasons in Seattle, reviving the Seahawks and leading them to the playoffs six times — two more than in their previous 23 years of existence — four NFC West titles and to the Super Bowl at the end of the 2005 season. Larger than life, they called him The Big Show.

He became a Seattle institution, like Starbuck’s or the Space Needle.

“He was a big deal here,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “He’ll always be part of Seahawks history. People loved him and he had great teams. He put this place on the map.”

He’s trying to get Cleveland back on it.

Only eight players remain on Seattle’s roster from when Holmgren last coached there in 2008. The Browns, coming off a 24-17 loss at Oakland that was more lopsided than the final score, will be short-handed.

Starting strongside linebacker Scott Fujita, the club’s second-leading tackler and a team leader, will miss the game with a concussion he sustained last week.

Also, running back Peyton Hillis (strained hamstring) and cornerback Joe Haden (sprained knee) missed practice time this week and are both questionable. Haden sat out last week’s game, and the Raiders took advantage of his absence by picking on backup Dimitri Patterson.

The Seahawks have their own injury issues, most prominently at quarterback.

Charlie Whitehurst took the majority of snaps in practice this week as Tarvaris Jackson continues to recover from a strained pectoral muscle.

Whitehurst has experience in a relief role. Twice last year he wasn’t tabbed as the starter until late in the week as Matt Hasselbeck dealt with injuries. Both times, Whitehurst had to fill in and he led the Seahawks to a season-ending win over St. Louis that clinched the division title.

Two weeks ago, Whitehurst came off the bench for an injured Jackson and rallied Seattle to a 36-25 upset of the New York Giants. He went 11 of 19 for 149 yards and a touchdown in about 11/2 quarters.

The Seahawks have been running a no-huddle offense, and Carroll said his club doesn’t miss a beat if Whitehurst is at the controls of the uptempo attack.

“He’s very comfortable with it,” Carroll said. “He got a lot of work during camp and preseason when we first installed the stuff, so he kind of picked it up, as we would hope.”