Holmgren not apologizing
Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Holmgren has had a lot of reasons to apologize this season, but his team’s current status in the NFC West is not among them.
“Getting into the playoffs in this league is not like other leagues, where everybody gets in. It’s an accomplishment,” Holmgren said Monday, one day after a 37-14 loss to the New York Jets dropped Seattle’s record to 7-7 this season. “I’m not going to apologize to anybody.”
Then maybe the league should do it for him.
While Holmgren’s Seahawks sit atop the NFC West with a .500 record, four AFC teams with 8-6 records are desperately fighting for the lone remaining playoff spot in that conference. Jacksonville, Denver, Baltimore and Buffalo – all eight-win teams – have to watch the Seahawks and 5-9 Arizona Cardinals play a game this Sunday that could very well determine who wins the NFC West.
“Crazy things happen,” Seahawks safety Ken Hamlin said. “Regardless of what our record is, if we get into the playoffs, it’s going to 0-0 for everybody.”
As hard as it is to believe, the NFC West actually has three teams – the Seahawks, Cardinals and 6-8 St. Louis Rams – that still have playoff hopes.
On the surface, the Cardinals would appear to have the most difficult path, if only because they need a pair of wins and for both Seattle and St. Louis to lose twice. Arizona would then finish tied with the Seahawks at 7-9, winning the tiebreaker because of a two-game sweep over Seattle (including, of course, this Sunday’s game).
But that scenario is not so far-fetched when looking at the upcoming opponents of all three teams. Arizona could realistically beat Seattle, then knock off Tampa Bay (5-9) in the season finale. Then the Cardinals would need the Seahawks to lose to Atlanta (11-3) and the Rams to lose to Philadelphia (13-1) and the New York Jets (10-4).
Seattle needs to win one game to clinch a playoff berth, and probably only needs one victory to win the division.
Bowlen plans to stick with Shanahan
Just like many of the players they lead, successful NFL coaches have a most unfortunate flaw: They rarely know when it’s time to go.
In his 10th season with the Denver Broncos, it’s looking more and more like that time has come for Mike Shanahan. But unless the owner, Pat Bowlen, changes his mind, it’s not going to happen.
“He’s got four years to go on his contract, and I’m not firing him,” Bowlen said recently, standing firm on a stance he took many months ago.
Bowlen is loyal to Shanahan largely because of the two Super Bowl titles the coach brought to Denver, a city that long yearned for a championship.
Since they won the Super Bowl and John Elway retired, the Broncos are 52-42, 0-2 in the playoffs. They start fast – 13-3 over the first quarter of the last four seasons – and finish poorly – 22-24 over the final three quarters of those years, with two games still to go in 2004.
Their 45-17 loss to Kansas City on Sunday, for which Shanahan took the blame, dropped Denver to 8-6 and left the Broncos in jeopardy of missing the playoffs.
Raiders meet with coach following arrest
Charles Woodson and Marques Anderson returned to work and met with coach Norv Turner a day after their arrest for public intoxication.
“It’s always a concern,” Turner said of suspect off-field behavior. “It’s an unfortunate situation, and we’re going to deal with it.”
He didn’t elaborate on any disciplinary action the team will take.
Anderson practiced, but Woodson was held out with a knee injury and is doubtful for Saturday’s game at Kansas City.
Woodson and Anderson were arrested at 4:20 a.m. Monday in Oakland after refusing to leave the back seat of a woman’s car, and both were jailed briefly. The woman’s name and age weren’t released, though she is from Oakland. It was unclear whether the players knew her.
Darius fined for hit on Packers receiver
Jacksonville safety Donovin Darius was fined $75,000 by the NFL for a hit across the neck of Green Bay’s Robert Ferguson that left the wide receiver temporarily paralyzed.
The hit came in the fourth quarter of Jacksonville’s 28-25 win over the Packers.
Ferguson caught a pass over the middle, and Darius hit him across the helmet and neck with a forearm. Ferguson lay on the ground and was taken off the field, regaining feeling in his legs later, after he was hospitalized.
He was released from the hospital Tuesday.
Darius said in a statement that he spoke with Ferguson on Monday in the hospital.
“We had a good conversation in which he told me he has no hard feelings,” Darius said. “We agreed that it was a part of the game. The most important thing is that Robert is OK.”