KIRKLAND, Wash. -- It only felt like a retirement.
Mike Holmgren looked nervous. He leaned forward and pushed his hands into the armrest of his chair. A half-dozen photographers jostled for position around him. They flashed at each of the Seahawks coach's expressions.
There were smiles. Deadpan stares. And, when reminded how much Seattle wants him to stay, there was obvious emotion in reddened eyes and pressed lips.
"I'm kind of getting the feeling you guys are moving me toward the door here," Holmgren, 59, said Tuesday, chuckling during his annual season-ending news conference, which offered more hints that the most successful coach in Seahawks history might retire after 16 seasons.
Seattle will find out soon. Holmgren said he could decide "perhaps" by next week, after he spends a few days talking with his wife, Kathy, at their home in Arizona.
"We're going to bang around some stuff and talk about the future. We have our lists (of pros and cons) made up," he said, adding he is or soon will be seeking the advice of Joe Gibbs, Bill Cowher, Bill Parcells and Tony Dungy.
All have recently retired from coaching or, in Dungy's case with Indianapolis, is considering it.
Holmgren was speaking three days after Seattle's fifth consecutive postseason appearance ended with a 42-20 loss to Green Bay in the NFC divisional playoffs. He sees three options for next season: retirement, which he's contemplating for the third consecutive offseason; completion of the final year of the two-year contract he signed soon after the Seahawks' loss in the Super Bowl 23 months ago; or something he prefers over option two, something he called "longer, larger" -- a new extension to stay in Seattle.
When asked if the Seahawks have already offered him a new deal, Holmgren said, "Let's not get too specific."
"There are very few Joe Paternos around," he said of college football's 81-year-old coach at Penn State.
"It just takes a lot out of you, so at the end of the season you're tired."
Holmgren told his players Sunday in a final team meeting that he needed time to clear his head before deciding whether he would return.
"I've heard talk like that for so long, for so many years with him. I think the best thing we do as football players is we worry about the stuff that we can control," said Pro Bowl quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, for whom Holmgren traded with Green Bay to make him Seattle's starter in 2001.
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