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Holmgren's Not Trippin', But His Wife Is
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DETROIT -- Mike Holmgren has a chance to do something no other NFL coach has done -- become the first coach to win a Super Bowl with two different teams.
But if his Seattle Seahawks manage to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, 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 and a doctor, to make a 2 1/2 -week trip to 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.
She is scheduled to leave Thursday.
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 International, 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."
'It Was a Big Jerk'
Getting to Super Bowl XL was easy for the Seahawks compared with getting into the media center. A van carrying Shaun Alexander, Matt Hasselbeck, Walter Jones and several other players was struck by a mechanical security fence. The players were jolted but uninjured.
The van was struck from the side and below by automatic gates as it tried to go through the entrance at the hotel complex.
"It was a big jerk. That was about it," Jones said. "It was a freak thing. But everyone laughed it off."
Alexander said there was a loud bang that startled the players and especially shook the driver.
