Mike Holmgren lenient with East Coast bedtime for players

The Associated Press | • Published September 06, 2008

• Comments (0)

Showing veteran coaches can learn new tricks, Mike Holmgren is trying something different when his team flies cross-country.

For the past nine years when Seattle had a game in the Eastern time zone, the team flew out Friday afternoon and had a curfew and lights out at the hotel at 11 p.m. local time that night. His players’ bodies still thought they were on Seattle time, so it was only 8 p.m. when Holmgren made them go to bed like restless teens.

That hasn’t worked out so well come Sundays, when his Seahawks have often slept through ugly first halves on their way to losses.

So now the 60-year-old Holmgren is relenting in his 10th and final season as Seahawks coach: games and movies and a later curfew on Friday nights.

The first trial of the new plan is this weekend at Buffalo.

“Immediately I wanted to get into the time frame of the city, (but) that’s 8 o’clock. And to say, ’Lights out! Go to bed! It’s 8 o’clock!” didn’t work, Holmgren said. “So the compromise is, I’m letting them stay up. We’ve created a game room of sorts, maybe a movie, some food, some things like that.

“Extend the curfew on Friday night so it’s a little more realistic to Seattle time. Let them get a good night’s sleep, hopefully, and kind of get them acclimated that way.”

So how late do the Seahawks get to stay up?

“It’s later,” is all Holmgren would reveal, with a wry smile.

WATCH OUT FOR THE HOT PEPPERS: Julius Peppers’ bull-rush on Chris Samuels might have been the signature moment of the Carolina Panthers’ preseason.

Peppers drove the five-time Pro Bowl tackle backward 5 yards and into Washington quarterback Jason Campbell. Campbell fumbled and Peppers scooped up the ball.

It was one of those spectacular plays the three-time Pro Bowl defensive end had routinely produced — until last year’s disappearing act.

Peppers has appeared bigger, stronger and quicker than last year, when he was held to a career-low 2½ sacks. He was dominant in limited action in three preseason games, recording two sacks, two forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries.