Head coach Mike Holmgren is entering his 10th -- and final -- season with Seattle. Otto Gruele Jr./Getty Images

Quick Pre-MMQB This-Is-What-the-Olympics-Mean-To-NFL-Players Interlude:

On the night Michael Phelps was swimming in a relay for his record eighth gold medal, the New York Giants were spending their final night at training camp at the University at Albany. Thirteen offensive linemen gathered around a big-screen plasma TV in a dorm room. Phelps dove in and lengthened the U.S. lead. "U-S-A! U-S-A!'' the linemen chanted. And when the race was won, one of the linemen -- no one's sure who -- started to sing. And they all joined in, at the top of their off-key lungs.

"God bless America ... land that I love ... stand beside her, and guide her ...''

Shaun O'Hara, the leader of the pack, told me: "What a night. The coolest thing. Pretty patriotic. Pretty memorable.''

You never know what you'll run across on the training-camp trail.

RENTON, Wash. -- We forget about the Seahawks quite often. It's easy to. Players do, too. When Corey Simon was a free agent once, he got a call from the Seahawks to gauge his interest but said no thanks. "I don't want to play at the North Pole,'' he said. As Matt Hasselbeck said, "We're in America, but Alaska, Hawaii, Seattle, the commitment's the same. You've got to really plan to come here. To get here, it's like, OK, stop everything, set aside a day, we're going to Maui. Same thing.''

"That's part of the reason why we built this place,'' club president Tim Ruskell said Saturday, standing at practice and turning to nod at the brand-new $76-million Virginia Mason Athletic Center, which just opened for business last week, replacing the perfectly fine but crammed practice facility a few miles north of here in Kirkland. "Recruiting free agents is part of the business today. This should help.''

Winning should help more. Here's your morning NFL quiz: Two NFL teams have won division titles and won at least one playoff game in each of the past three seasons. Name them.

New England, of course. And Seattle. Playing in the weakest division in football has helped, but every year we pay no attention to the Seahawks' chances, and there they are, in the final eight at season's end, while the more celebrated teams -- Dallas, Philly, Denver, Carolina -- are home. In the last three years, the Patriots have won 38 regular-season games, five playoff games and are 0-1 in the Super Bowl. The Seahawks have won 32 regular-season games, four playoff games and are 0-1 in the Super Bowl.

This is a long-winded way to get to the interesting story of their coach, Mike Holmgren, who, if it is possible in today's massively over-covered National Football League, remains an underrated figure. Holmgren announced in the off-season he would coach out the final year of his two-year contract extension in 2008, then part ways with the Seahawks. Seattle named secondary coach Jim Mora the coach for 2009 and beyond.

When I say underrated, consider these numbers before I get back to the Holmgren 2008 story.

• Bill Parcells averaged 9.63 wins per NFL season. Holmgren's average: 10.63.

• Holmgren's 16 teams have won 170 games. Joe Gibbs' 16 teams won 171.

• Holmgren is 170-110 as an NFL head coach. Paul Brown was 170-108-6 in the NFL.

That last one is fairly remarkable.

So Holmgren, the lame duck, is back for one final year here. The question is: Will 2008 be his last year of coaching?

I got the feeling in a long and winding chat in his office after practice Saturday that Holmgren will very likely be back, either as a GM or coach or maybe both, as soon as 2009. And not for just a year or two.

"I'm absolutely at peace with my decision,'' he said. "I'm going to have fun and enjoy coaching this team this year. It's business as usual. That's what I've told the coaches and the players.''

After the season, Holmgren said he and his wife, Kathy, would get away to their vacation home in Arizona, spend at least 30 days decompressing and clearing their minds after another season, then think about making a decision on the future. Notice I said, "think about making a decision,'' not "make a decision.'' Holmgren said he would not put any time frame on when he'd decide what to do with the rest of his life.

"I'm calling this a sabbatical leave,'' he said. "It's not a retirement. I've got to find out how I'll feel about being out of the game. How will I react? I don't know. I have to go through it and see. I have other interests. I'm a curious guy. When you're in this business for as long as I've been in it, you miss a lot of things. Once, when I was in San Francisco [as an assistant coach], we're sitting in an offensive meeting, going through the grind of training camp, and Bill Walsh looks up and says, 'You know, I hear August is a very nice month.'

"Will the future involve football? Will it involve something else? Who knows? The beauty is I'm going to prepare to deal with whatever comes up.''

Several interesting points here. One: This is Holmgren's 10th season in Seattle. He coached seven years in Green Bay. Weird. Most people would think the opposite -- 10 years in Green Bay, seven here. Two: Holmgren has long been heavily admired by other owners in the league. Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder love him, and I think part of Holmgren would love to prove his mettle in a cauldron like the NFC East, a part of the country he's never experienced. Would those jobs be open in 2009 or beyond, if Holmgren takes 2009 to find the inner Mike? Who knows? Three: League friends of Holmgren think he's never gotten over being stripped of his GM responsibilities three years ago, when Ruskell came in.

Holmgren said he didn't regret leaving Green Bay because he wanted to run and coach his own team. "Things changed, and when that was taken away from me, I did have a few of those thoughts,'' said Holmgren, meaning regrets on leaving Green Bay. But he said he doesn't look back on leaving Green Bay with regret, because he had no reason to think Ron Wolf wouldn't run the Packers for several more years, and he didn't know if a chance as good as total control in Seattle would ever come up again. "If I didn't think I could handle how we're set up, I wouldn't have come back this year. But I can. We're fine here.''

On the practice field, he looks and coaches the same. He growls. He teaches. "I see a little more intensity,'' said linebacker Leroy Hill. Hasselbeck said Holmgren "might teach life lessons more than he has, but I'm searching here. He seems the same to me.''

I asked Holmgren about a famous Parcellsism: When you say you're thinking about retirement, you're already retired. He chuckled. "I love Bill, but hasn't he retired four times?'' said Holmgren. "I'd say the same thing if Bill were sitting across this desk from me.''

My gut feeling? Why shouldn't he coach again? Holmgren is 60, and aside from a recent non-life-threatening health scare (he won't disclose what it was), looks good. This season, Tom Coughlin will be 62, Wade Phillips 61 and Rod Marinelli 59, and no one is saying those guys don't have the gumption to coach five more years.

***

Seattle's going to be a 10- or 11-win team, by the way. Hasselbeck, who has been sidelined for a couple of weeks with lower back spasms, will be fine. "If there were a game today,'' he said Saturday afternoon, "I could definitely play. They're just being cautious.''

The facility here is just another in a line of ridiculously beautiful places NFL players are using these days. The place is on Lake Washington, and eight boats were anchored in the water next to the practice field, with fans with feet up on a couple of them, drinking beer and enjoying the sights on a beautiful summer afternoon.

Inside, Hasselbeck has been using one of the neatest inventions in rehab history -- a real, honest-to-goodness underwater treadmill -- to stay in shape while resting and strengthening his back. "I weigh 235,'' he said, "but when I'm running on the underwater treadmill, my body's 135. It takes so much pressure off the back.''

An underwater treadmill. What will they think of next?

This: There's a yoga and Pilates studio here.

Chris Henry has been arrested five times since the Bengals drafted him in 2005. AP

Quote of the Week I

"Being in the league for 15 years, I got to know what Gene Upshaw did as a player, which was great, obviously, and what he did for the players with the union. Everything he did, he did for the betterment of today's players. He knew how far he could push the owners while keeping us on the field. His attitude was not to go in and try to take everything, but to get as much as he could while keeping us out of litigation and out of the courtroom and on the field, where he knew we belonged.''
--Veteran Cleveland linebacker Willie McGinest, on the sudden passing of NFL Players Association executive director Gene Upshaw, five days after Oakland's number 63 had his 63rd birthday party.

Quote of the Week II

"The Bengals re-acquired a capable wide receiver. All it cost them was their soul. ... It'd be nice if the Bengals stood for something, other than losing.''
--Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty, on the team's re-signing of troubled wide receiver Chris Henry, who, since being drafted in 2005 by Cincinnati, has been arrested five times for, in order, possession of marijuana, possession of a concealed firearm and aggravated assault with a concealed firearm, DUI, providing alcohol to underage girls in a hotel room and assault. In addition, police were called but no charges filed when Henry allegedly stiffed a parking lot attendant for payment last November and the two men argued. He has been suspended three times for a total of 15 games in his four-year career.

The signing comes in the same year that twice the Bengals said publicly they would definitely not re-sign Henry -- and after they have been hit with several injuries to receivers in camp, including to starters Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh.

The signing is ridiculous and reprehensible, and Daugherty is overwhelmingly correct. But read the message boards in Bengal Land, and you get a different story. This from "XElitist03,'' on the newspaper's Bengals forum: "paul daugherty should quit his job before he gets fired. he is miserable. he is more miserable than chris henry. i would much rather have chris henry in cincinnati gang-banging than paul writing another article for the newspaper.''

Thanks for that fine bit of perspective, XElitist03.

Quote of the Week III

"Some guys love playing in the NFL. Some guys love football. Brett loves football.''
--Hasselbeck, on his friend Brett Favre.

Stat of the Week

Five of my favorite meaningful stats from this year's indispensable Pro Football Prospectus 2008, courtesy of indefatigable writer/researcher Aaron Schatz:

1. New England was the first team in NFL history to use the shotgun on more than half of all offensive plays last year. Shotgun snaps in the league rose from 19 percent in 2006 to 27 percent in 2007.

2. Chad Pennington had eight passes dropped by his receivers, meaning 3.1 percent of his passes were dropped, the lowest percentage in the NFL. Eli Manning had a league-high 9.3-percent drop rate by his receivers -- 49 in all.

3. Indianapolis led the league in single-back formations for the third straight year in 2007.

4. The Steelers didn't abandon the power-run under Mike Tomlin. Not at all. In 2007, 48 percent of Steelers plays were carries by backs, the highest percentage in the NFL, including a league-high 60 percent of plays on first down.

5. The Chargers could be in big, big trouble without Shawne Merriman if he chooses to have knee surgery for two torn ligaments. You wouldn't guess this, but last year San Diego was the only defense in the AFC that hurried the opposing quarterback on less than 10 percent of all pass plays.

Aggravating/Enjoyable Travel Note of the Week

As I exited my row on a United Airlines flight from Newark to Chicago at O'Hare Friday, preparing to change planes to go to Seattle, a fellow in the row behind me said, "You work for ESPN, don't you?''

I said, "No, I work for Sports Illustrated.''

He said, "You look just like the ESPN guy. Anyone ever tell you that?''

I didn't know what to say, and so I just shrugged.

Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me I

I finished my summer tour of NFL camps Saturday, seeing the Seahawks. That was my 16th team in exactly one month. In those 16 camps, I saw close to 1,000 players, either on the practice field, in locker rooms, strolling campuses or practice facilities, or in dining halls.

Some old vets -- Favre, Joey Galloway -- have hair or beards flecked with gray. I found it interesting that I saw only one player, the backup center for the Giants, with predominantly gray hair.

Grey Ruegamer.

Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me II

At the Hudson Newsstand/General Store (don't know what else you'd call those all-in-one stores) at Newark Airport's Terminal C Friday, there were 51 pieces of athletic apparel for sale. No Jeter jerseys, no Eli Manning jerseys, no A-Rod jerseys. All 51 items for sale on the sports rack were Favre Jets jerseys.

Osi Umenyiora left Saturday's preseason game against the Jets with a season-ending knee injury. AP

Ten Things I Think I Think

1. I think these are my quick-hit thoughts of the preseason weekend:

a. The Patriots, in the final two minutes of the first half against Philadelphia, allowed 177 return yards and touchdowns on a kickoff return and a punt return.

b. Hard to imagine a Patriots team in the grasping mode as much as this one is. Can you remember a Patriots team in the Bill Belichick era getting booed off the field at halftime? I can't.

c. Alex Smith will make $10.3 million to back up J.T. O'Sullivan, who will make $645,000. Is there no end to the indignity of Smith's NFL career?

d. I told you not to worry about Steven Jackson.

e. The Osi Umenyiora knee injury. A sin. Just a sin. To lose a player like him in the preseason ... it's just more motivation for coaches to not play their players 'til the first game of the season. For the Giants to play without Michael Strahan and Umenyiora, you have to wonder if Justin Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka, buttressed by Dave Tollefson, can get near the pressure the Giants were getting last winter in the playoffs.

f. Seriously, if I'm Belichick or Tony Dungy or any coach for that matter, I'd rather have my star players rusty in Week 1 than take a chance on them being lost for the year to some fluke August injury.

g. Brady Quinn: six series, six points. Not a good first NFL start.

h. The Browns, all 75 of them left in camp, need to Google "sense of urgency.''

i. Except maybe Shaun Rogers. He stuffed Detroit's running game throughout the first quarter. Not that he was out for any kind of revenge or anything like that.

j. Calvin Johnson is playing like Yao among fourth-graders.

k. Matt Ryan is one quick learner. Without question, he looks like the most competent quarterback in Falcons camp, and no one can be surprised he won the opening-day QB job Sunday.

l. Nobody wants the Baltimore job. I still say it'll go to Troy Smith.

m. Leave it to Chad Pennington to roll out of bed, skim the Miami playbook and complete 70 percent in his first three quarters with the first unit.

n. Great nugget by NFL Networker Adam Schefter last night on the Colts-Bills game: Last year, Marvin Harrison had the same bursa-sac surgery that Peyton Manning is recovering from now -- and Manning never talked to him about it or asked him about his experience with it.

o. If you think Terrell Owens and Tony Romo aren't drooling at the thought of playing that Cleveland secondary Sept. 7, you're nuts.

p. At some point -- not yet, but in the next few weeks -- we might actually be justified in worrying about Carson Palmer and the Cincinnati offense.

2. I think for years we've all assumed the most indispensable player in football was Peyton Manning, because he played every snap for the Colts and they never had a backup quarterback. But have you seen Matt Cassel try to run the Patriots' offense in the last two weeks? That is some ugly football. I think the Colts stand a better chance of winning with Jim Sorgi than the Patriots do with Cassel. (Editor's Note: Senior writer Don Banks will be ranking all 32 backup QBs on Tuesday on SI.com)

3. I think, regarding the best two players in football, this is my gut feeling: Tom Brady certainly plays the New England opener against Kansas City. Manning is 60-40 to play Indy's against Chicago. There's a reason why I wrote the Manning story atop MMQB last week, and much of it has to do with what transpired this week -- the reports (which I heard and could not confirm) of Manning having a second surgery on the left knee.

Cardinals wide receiver Anquan Boldin has made it clear he's not happy in Arizona. AP

4. I think I used to support a 17-game regular season, in part because I hate the preseason games so much, but no more. Too much injury risk, and the accumulation of aches and pains for players playing a 17th game is just too much to ask. Football is injury roulette.

These are this week's reasons I will not favor an increase in the regular season from 16 to 17 or 18 games: Osi Umenyiora, Jason Taylor, Maurice Jones-Drew. It happens every year. Responsible league people start talking about playing extra games, and the preseason tells us in spades that 16 is enough when players start dropping in games that mean nothing. The NFL can add a 17th game, and it would not be a cheap imitation of the real thing, necessarily. But the injury risk could make a 17th game another phony late-season game for the teams that have clinched playoff berths. I don't like it.

5. I think the Cardinals will treat Anquan Boldin the way the Bengals treated Chad Johnson. Whether he is playing under a just or unjust contract, Boldin will not be traded -- though you can bet Dallas would give the Cards a first-round pick in 2009 for the miserable receiver -- until after this season. As with the Johnson story in Cincinnati, Arizona is concerned with the precedent moving an unhappy player would set, believing it would cause more than one defensive stalwart (like Darnell Docket, who had his contract renegotiated in 2006) to line up at the pay-me-or-trade-me window too.

"I will try to detach myself from the organization as much as possible,'' Boldin told NFL Network the other day. "As long as I'm here, I can't see myself as a happy member of this organization at all, not with this situation being what it is. I don't see it being rectified, either. The relationship with me and the organization is done. I'm here to uphold my contract, that's it."

The problem here, of course, is that the Cardinals signed Larry Fitzgerald to a foolish rookie deal in 2004, causing a ballooning salary to come due in 2008, and they signed him to an extension in the offseason that will pay him $26.7 million in new money in the next two years (assuming a $5 million option bonus is exercised next year). Boldin, meanwhile, is due to earn $5.25 million in the next two years, not including deferred bonus compensation from his re-negotiated contract. The Cardinals set up this mess. Now they've got to deal with it. I feel for Ken Whisenhunt, who didn't make this mess, no matter what Boldin says.

6. I think, speaking of interesting Cardinals tidbits, Arizona has to name Kurt Warner the starting quarterback, and not just because Matt Leinart spit the bit in going 4-of-12 with three picks at Oakland on Saturday night. Whisenhunt entered camp saying it'd be an open competition. Warner and Leinart were fairly even until Saturday night, when Leinart essentially lost the job. But had it been a dead heat, my feeling is Whisenhunt would have gone with Warner. If he had named Leinart, and if Leinart were to struggle in September, Leinart would be booed heavily because the Arizona crowd is already not in a trusting mode with him, and maybe Leinart would have trouble coming back in Arizona from that. Conversely, if Warner struggles, loses and has to be pulled, the fans (and players) will be looking forward to Leinart coming in, to see if he can pull the team out of a funk. I expect Whisenhunt to name Warner the man for the opener at San Francisco on Sept. 7.

7. I think Mike Nolan had no choice but to name O'Sullivan his starting quarterback. He was clearly the best of the three quarterbacks (Smith, Shaun Hill) in camp and in games this summer. Talked to Nolan this weekend, and he's clearly enamored of two things -- Mike Martz as his no-nonsense coordinator and O'Sullivan as his signal-caller. "Thus far,'' Nolan said, "J.T.'s been better than the other two, and there hasn't really been much of a gray area. His play's been better at the position than what we've had at any point in the last three years.'' Sounds like O'Sullivan has a little rope to work with there.

8. I think Merriman's got to get the surgery.

9. I think, if you're looking for a 14th-round tight end bargain in your fantasy draft this week, I'd pick up Seattle rookie John Carlson. He's 6-foot-5, athletic, and the first complete tight end Holmgren's had in Seattle. Look for Hasselbeck to go to him early and often.

10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:

a. Baseball as a team game is underrated. The last five men in the batting order of the Rays, with the best record in baseball, on Sunday in Chicago were named Aybar, Zobrist, Riggans, Gross and Bartlett.

b. Don't laugh: Dustin Pedroia's having one of the top 10 seasons of any hitter in baseball.

c. The airlines don't care about us. There's a surprise.

d. Coffeenerdness: Thank you, Caribou Coffee. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Free wireless. Can't beat that.

e. Weekly Dice-K Madness Section: Boston at Baltimore, Tuesday night. Daisuke Matsuzaka, the most maddening pitcher on the planet, is staked to a 2-0 lead entering the bottom of the first. The first two Orioles go single-walk, and he gets out of it. In the second, now up 3-0, Dice-K walks the leadoff batter and gets out of it. Third inning: With two out, the Orioles go single-walk-single-single. Now it's 3-2. Fourth inning: groundout, single, single, walk, strikeout, popout. Ninety pitches through four. He survives. He throws five innings, is saved by the potent offense, ups his league-high walk total to 77 ... and improves to 15-2. Fifteen and two! With games like this in every single start!

f. Maybe Boston on an Indian Summer sunny day is nicer. Or San Diego on a crystal-clear April day. But when it's sunny and warm, downtown Seattle is one of the best cities in the world.

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