Former Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Holmgren joined KJR’s Dave “Softy” Mahler this morning to talk about his renewed interest in returning to the NFL next year in 2010.

Holmgren said he’s in Salt Lake City babysitting his granddaughter Emma. Holmgren’s daughter Calla, a doctor who lives in Utah, joined his wife Kathy on a relief effort to work in refugee camps in Uganda.

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According to this report from the Washington Post, former Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Holmgren is ready to return to the NFL (hat tip to Field Gulls).

Per the report, Holmgren talked with former Seattle Times reporter Les Carpenter, now with the Washington Post, about returning to the league in some capacity.

Here's an excerpt.

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Seahawks QB Matt Hasselbeck
On how he feels physically after his injury:
“I’m not concerned at all. I’m not concerned one bit. I feel great. I’m on a timeline; a conservative timeline. But I feel like I’ll be ready to go - first mini-camp, even before then, opening of winter workouts, March 31st or whatever it is.”

On what Head Coach Mike Holmgren meant for his career:
“He turned the Green Bay franchise around. I was fortunate enough to get on board the train after they had gone to a couple of Super Bowls, and I was able to enjoy some of that success. And here in Seattle, he turned this franchise around. I got here in time for the hard times and was able to go through the journey of turning it around with him. I think that’s his legacy. I’m just really happy that I got to be a part of it.”

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Opening statement:
"I think we gave it a good go for a while and we got beat by some really fine players. (Larry) Fitzgerald is one of the best, plus he's a tremendous kid. I told Ken (Whisenhunt) and Russ (Grimm) and those guys after the game -- and I meant it -- they've worked really hard to get to this point and I wish them well in the playoffs. The Seahawks and the Cardinals are going to battle it out every year and we'll be back next year and hopefully have a few more of our guys. I was very proud of the way the players battled and it was a great effort -- we just ran out of guys. Kyle Williams, the only guy who really got hurt, had a concussion and they're going to take him to the hospital -- but I think it's a quick deal and I believe he'll be able to fly back with us."

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(Opening… ) That was something. That was the first time in my life that I enjoyed having snowballs thrown at me. The players did an outstanding job today, they really did. What it goes to show you is that if you are thinking properly, and you try hard enough, and you play together, you have a chance in every game you play. You might not win it, because the other team is that much more talented than you are. And the Jets are a good football team, and they will finish very well this season. But today, in this atmosphere, with the weather the way it was I couldn’t be more proud of the football team. It was the best present they could give me for Christmas. It was good.

(On whether he was hit by any snowballs ….) No direct hits. I had my security people take a couple of shots. That’s what they are paid to do, though. In fact, I got bumped in the back by one of our police officers, and I said, “what are you doing”, and he said, “I just took a hit for you.” [laughter]

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(On injury to Derek Stanley)
“Just to give you an injury update on Derek Stanley, he has a knee injury and he will have a MRI tomorrow. I think it is a significant injury, but we hope it is not, but he will have a MRI tomorrow.”

(On the game)
“If nothing else this team is going to learn quickly in the future that when you have a chance to put a team away early in the game, that these turnovers are going to come back and get you sooner or later. Derek’s (Stanley) turnover led to seven points, then (TE) Joe Klopfenstein took seven off the board when it should have been 24-0 at halftime. When you let a team like that hang around and they come out and get the ball in the second half and they get a couple of field goals, then they are back into the game. You have a chance to really take care of it in the first half and you don’t do it, if nothing else hopefully this team will learn that that is the most important thing in the game.”

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(On getting a win)
“I’m glad we got the win. I’m so happy to get that little horse off our back. It means so much when these guys are fighting so hard. I know you hear it week in and week out, but it’s the honest truth guys are working very hard and we finally broke through. You can just see we joy inside the locker room, it’s unreal.”

(On getting a win for Coach Mike Holmgren)
“He doesn’t deserve to go out like this. But the best thing we can do for him is to win these last two games and end his career that way. I know it’s not the way he wanted to, but that’s the best thing we could do for him, win these next couple of games.”

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(On the differences in the second half and the first half)
“I think we just came out flat in the first half. They did some things defensively that kind of caught us off-guard a little bit. We just had to adjust. I don’t think we came out ready to play early in the game. (Seahawks Head Coach) Mike (Holmgren) got on us a little bit at halftime and we came out and played one heck of a second half.”

(On Head Coach Mike Holmgren’s comments about him getting emotional)
“I got really emotional toward the end. I just had my mom on my mind. My mom passed about two years ago. Without her and God and her being an inspiration in my life. We came up with some big plays down there at the end of the game and it was just a huge win. I was just proud for everybody, because we were battling and coming up short all season long.”

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(On the game)
“I don’t know what to say, its been so long. I thought it was a great effort by the guys in the second half. I thought we played a poor football game in the first half. So I challenged them a little at half time and I think they responded beautifully. They are very happy, they should be, they worked very hard. In this league a win is a win. I am very happy with the players.”

(On the second half)
“We struggled on our pass protection in the first half. We made some adjustments at half time. I threw the ball a little quicker in the second half. We ran the ball a little bit more. We were not a able to spend much time dropping back and throwing the ball, we just couldn’t. They did a nice job of blitzing us.”

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(On his fine performance today…) “No matter how many catches you have—or don’t have, I guess—there’s always something to learn from the game. That’s why we watch film every week.”
(On whether he’s had more success than he expected at the beginning of the season…) “Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect. No matter what happened, it would’ve been a surprise, and in some ways, a shock to me.”

(On how it feels to have the most catches for a tight end in a season…) “It’s just kind of a function of our situation. Obviously, when you have so many receivers hurt, and I was the only guy that’s stayed healthy for quite a while on the receiving corps, the numbers are going to happen.”

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(On whether he was the intended receiver on the Seahawks’ last offensive play… ) I wish he had had the time to throw it. It didn’t work out. We had just spoken right before, they had lined up in the same defense, they gave us what we wanted, but we just couldn’t block it up.

(On having a great day against his own team, but end up losing…) The biggest thing is that I would rather take one catch and win the game, then to have 4 catches and all of the other stuff that went on in the game. It’s a sad thing for me with these guys fighting so hard, each and every day at practice, and then for us to go out and pretty much win the game for 3 quarters, and then we lose the game in the end. You almost would rather lose by three touchdowns than to lose that way.

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(On his play today… ) It felt good. Everybody played well. The offense; we did what we are capable of doing. We had some guys out, and some guys stepped in and played well. I think it was one of our best outings so far this year on the offensive side of the ball. Like I said, everybody played well. I felt like there was a couple of times out there, that I probably could have done a little bit more to help us out. It has been one of the years, and unfortunately we came up a little short today.

(On the last offensive play…) They just made a good play. They actually came out with that defense three times in the game. I called time out twice. It’s tough, because we don’t have an answer for it. We go up there and try to make something up and try to protect, and they just made a good play down there in the stretch. Mo tried to make a block, but [Meriweather] made a good play. I tried to hold on to the ball, but unfortunately I fumbled the ball.

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