Before the game gets going in a little while, I wanted to post this story that I just read about. This is the kind of story I love to hear about, and it makes all the hype and bs of the day fade away for me for a moment….maybe it will for you too.
Here’s the original reference, and the text of the story is provided below.
What caught my attention was Holmgren’s quote about his wife:
“She works very hard at a lot of things that are more important than coaching a football game.”
What an great perspective…
While the whole world is obsessed with the Super Bowl today, there’s at least one family –one as close to the center of it all as you can get– that’s keeping it all in it’s proper place. There are a whole lot of things more important than coaching a football game. And maybe only a pro like Holmgren can really understand that, while all the rest of us lemmings foam at the mouth, as if the world’s going to be saved or damned by what happens at Ford Field today. Not only is it incredibly cool that husband and wife could support each other in their different dreams and passions, it’s also cool that they don’t seem to care what everybody assumes they ought to be doing today.
How refreshing is that?
Makes me want to switch my prediction, and cheer for the Seahawks…
From the Washington Post blog:
Holmgren’s Wife on a Mission, but Not in Detroit
By Mark Maske
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 30, 2006; 2:39 PM
DETROIT — Mike Holmgren could reach the pinnacle of coaching when his Seattle Seahawks face the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl here on Sunday. He could become the first coach to lead two different teams to Super Bowl titles.
But if he does, his wife Kathy won’t be here to see it.
As a Christmas present, Mike Holmgren arranged for Kathy, a nurse, and Calla, one of the couple’s four daughters who is a doctor, to make a 2 1/2 -week trip to the Congo as part of a humanitarian mission. Kathy will be traveling to the same aid station where she worked as a missionary nurse 35 years ago, when the country was called Zaire.
And she’s scheduled to leave Thursday for Africa.
Holmgren said arrangements were made four months ago, long before the Seahawks qualified for the Super Bowl, and the possibility of a conflict never occurred to him.
“We didn’t even think about the dates being a problem,” Holmgren said Sunday at the Seahawks’ hotel in Dearborn, Mich.. ” . . . It was the best present I could ever give her.”
Kathy Holmgren serves on the board of Northwest Medical Teams, the nonprofit organization arranging the trip. Mike Holmgren said he didn’t want her to reconsider making the trip.
“She said, ‘Are you upset I’m not going to be there with you?’ I said, ‘Nah,’ ” he said. ” . . . I’m very proud of her. She works very hard at a lot of things that are a lot more important than coaching a football game. Her heart is here even though she’s going to be in Africa with my daughter. . . . . It’s a 17-day trip. I’ll let them know who wins when they get back.”
WhenEFTalks 