By Mike Kahn
SportsLine Executive Editor
Jan. 10, 1999

SEATTLE -- For years, the Pacific Northwest has been known for beautiful greenery, mountains, nonstop rain, Boeing and, lately, Microsoft, Starbucks and Amazon.com. As of this week, it also will be noted for being the home of the most expensive pair of NFL/college football coaches in the history of the pigskin.

As

Time will tell whether Rick Neuheisel is worth being college football's second-highest-paid coach. (AP)

if it wasn't dramatic enough that the Seahawks whisked Mike Holmgren out of Green Bay just two days after a last-second playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers, University of Washington athletic director Barbara Hedges -- with the skill of the Secret Service -- stole Rick Neuheisel out from under the noses of University of Colorado.

Friday, Holmgren was hired.

Saturday, Neuheisel.

Sunday, whiplash!

HOLMGREN IS ONE STORY. HE MADE IT clear last year that he had a keen interest in a dual role as general manager and coach with a franchise on the rise. The Seahawks, gilded with billions of dollars from owner Paul Allen, had the job, the talent and the new stadium on the way. There was a sense of inevitability with the deal, if not the meteoric speed with which it took place.

Oh, yeah, they also handed him an eight-year deal worth at least $32 million. And if there was a guy to re-set the market, Holmgren figured to be as good a bet as any. At 50, he had taken the Packers to the Super Bowl in each of the past two seasons, but the weight of his own restlessness plus injuries prevented the team from again meeting preseason expectations beyond an 11-5 record and first-round KO. Nonetheless, he did compile an 84-42 record in his seven seasons and was eager to add a front-office title to his resume.

Rightfully so. He was at the top of the list for the Seahawks from the beginning, and the only reason Jim Haslett came in before Holmgren was because of the playoffs.

Neuheisel is an entirely different circumstance.

The former boy-wonder quarterback from UCLA, who stunningly took over for retiring Bill McCartney at Colorado as a 37-year-old first-time head coach, was figured to be in Seattle recruiting top running back prospect Paul Arnold. Neuheisel had earned a mixed bag of reviews in his four years as the Chief Buffalo. With the help of some of McCartney's leftovers, the Buffs were 10-2 in each of his first two seasons. The expectations rose, and Neuheisel's slick style didn't help when they were 5-6 in 1997 and 3-5 in the Big 12. Their 8-4 mark this season pacified a few, although none seemed thrilled.

NO LONGER WERE HIS HAWAIIAN shirts and guitar-playing sessions ingratiating qualities. His skiing trips and whitewater rafting would have to be outings for family and friends instead of team members. The boosters wanted victories and tired quickly of the renaissance quality. Neuheisel entered this season as the former fair-haired boy. Add to that the state law allowing only for one-year contracts of $630,000, and he was ripe to be picked.

But when Hedges chimed in with a seven-year deal worth $10 million -- when you include the cost of paying off the mortgage on his $850,000 home in Boulder -- more than a few gasps echoed all the way from the Rockies to the Cascades.

In excess of $5 million a year will be flowing to the two name football coaches in Seattle beginning now, and you have to wonder just how frantic the University of Washington boosters really are.

When the Seahawks fired Dennis Erickson on Dec. 28, one day after they failed to get into the playoffs for the 10th consecutive season, nobody was surprised. They underachieved at 8-8 (31-33 in four years), and a new direction was bound to be taken.

Two days later, Washington fired Jim Lambright.

The difference between the two scenarios is glaring. It was late November when Hedges went on record saying she was fine with Lambright, who was 44-25-1 in six seasons with the Huskies. But they were 7-9 since beginning last season as a national favorite and a 7-1 start. More important, Lambright's continuous gaffes in the media created an embarrassment for the university. Their 45-25 defeat to Air Force in the Oahu Bowl left Lambright blaming the lopsided loss on the inability of the scout practice squad to prepare them.

THE GENERAL PERCEPTION IS HEDGES is merely the messenger, that pressure from trustees and boosters was too strong. Lambright had become increasingly weak in recruiting local talent, and Neuheisel had been picking plums instead of apples in Washington. His youthful zeal and appeal fit with what they were looking for as opposed to the gruff contradictions of Lambright, 56. Plus they wanted somebody else besides a remnant assistant from the Don James Era.

Still, this move smacks of one-upsmanship with the Seahawks when you compare Neuheisel to Holmgren. Holmgren has a championship track record, and whether he deserved to be the highest-paid coach in the NFL is debatable. He set a new standard with a growing franchise.

Although Neuheisel was only the fourth coach ever to coach his team to a pair of Top 10 finishes in his first two seasons as a head coach and the 20 victories ranked fifth in NCAA Division I history, many people thought it to be centrifugal force from the McCartney epoch. Few will dispute that Neuheisel is a marvelous recruiter, but does he deserve to be paid second only to perennial national championship contender Steve Spurrier?

Regardless of the outcome over the next seven to eight years with these two millionaire coaches, it certainly has created a buzz in the air that has nothing to do with lattes. It wasn't that long ago that nearly 140,000 fans would combine to attend a Husky game Saturday on Lake Washington and a Seahawk contest on Elliott Bay on Sunday. Recent slides in performance caused a decline in attendance that will most assuredly turn around next fall.

At least they had better. Not even billionaires like to throw away money.

Mike Kahn is SportsLine's executive editor.