Holmgren agrees on contract extension to remain with Seahawks

KIRKLAND, Wash. — The Seahawks have retained the legs and now the brains of their topflight offense.

The defending NFC champions have called a Wednesday news conference in which they are expected to announce coach Mike Holmgren has agreed to a contract extension that will keep him in Seattle beyond 2006.

They have already re-signed league MVP and rushing leader Shaun Alexander.

Holmgren's agent, Bob LaMonte, did not return phone calls or e-mails to his Reno, Nev., home office Tuesday night or early Wednesday seeking contract terms, but Holmgren's extension is believed to be through the 2008 season.

A Seahawks official said Wednesday morning only that a news conference has been scheduled and Holmgren will be there.

Holmgren, the architect and play caller for the NFL's highest-scoring offense in 2005, was entering the final season of his $35 million, eight-year contract that was to pay him $7 million this season. He signed that deal upon arriving in Seattle in 1999 from Green Bay, where he was the Packers' coach from 1992-98 and won a Super Bowl.

LaMonte was in the Seattle area last week for two days of discussions with Seahawks executives.

Holmgren acknowledged those discussions were complicated. He said in March that he would like to return to the general manager-type duties he had over his first four years in Seattle. But second-year president Tim Ruskell currently has the GM role in Seattle.

"Now there's a little more to talk about, in fairness to everybody," Holmgren said last week after his agent had met with the Seahawks.

Those were the first contract negotiations since Holmgren said in late March that he was "thinking about what I want to do, honestly."

"I wanted us to win the Super Bowl and ride off on a white horse," he said then.

Holmgren, who turns 58 next month, has four daughters and four granddaughters. Six weeks ago, he talked of spending more time with them and his wife, Kathy.

But last week, he said for the first time he had decided he wanted to continue beyond a 15th season as an NFL head coach.

The San Francisco native and former 49ers offensive coordinator was Green Bay's coach from 1992-98. He won a Super Bowl with the Packers after the '96 season.

His new contract completes what has been an almost perfect Seattle spring.