NFL Wire Notes | Mora takes a pass on 'Skins job

If Mike Holmgren does decide to retire from the Seahawks, his heir apparent will still be in Seattle.

Jim Mora withdrew himself from consideration for the Washington Redskins' coaching vacancy and returned to the Seahawks' staff Friday. His decision came after the Redskins' owner had sent a plane to fly him east and then hosted Seattle's assistant head coach and defensive-backs coach at the tycoon's guesthouse during two days of interviews.

"I want to thank the Redskins organization and owner Daniel Snyder for the opportunity to interview for the head-coaching position," Mora said in a statement released by the Seahawks.

"The process reconfirmed that the quality of life for my family in Seattle is my first priority. This past year has been a great experience both professionally and personally for myself, my wife Shannon, and our kids. We are very happy members of this community and the Seattle Seahawks organization."

Holmgren added Mora, 46, to his staff soon after Mora was fired as head coach of the Falcons on New Year's Day 2007, after three seasons leading Atlanta. He went to the NFC Championship Game in his first season there, in 2004.

Mora attended Interlake High while his father was an assistant at the University of Washington. When he returned to Seattle last year, he instantly became the assumed, eventual replacement for Holmgren.

The 59-year-old Holmgren is spending the weekend in Arizona with his wife contemplating whether to return for a 17th season as an NFL head coach. Holmgren, who would like a contract extension from the Seahawks beyond 2008, said he "perhaps" will make a decision next week.

Ravens name Harbaugh coach

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — John Harbaugh was hired as head coach of the Baltimore Ravens, who hope their second choice proves to be a first-rate success.

Harbaugh spent this season as Philadelphia's secondary coach after making a name for himself working with special teams. He has never been a head coach but has coaching in his genes — his father, Jack, is former head coach at Western Kentucky.

The 45-year-old Harbaugh will be introduced as the third coach in Ravens history at a news conference today.

Harbaugh replaces Brian Billick, who was fired on Dec. 31 after a nine-year run. The Ravens earlier this week offered the job to Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, who spurned Baltimore in favor of staying in Dallas.

Surprising admission from Walker

ATLANTA — Herschel Walker has multiple personalities — a revelation in an upcoming book that surprises the man who coached the former NFL star during his college career.

"That's all news to me," former Georgia coach Vince Dooley said in Friday editions of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "All I know is whatever personality he had when he had the football was the one I liked."

"Breaking Free" will chronicle Walker's life with multiple personality disorder, according to Shida Carr, a publicist at Simon & Schuster. Carr said the book will be published in August but gave no other details and declined to provide excerpts.

Walker played for the Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He has lived in Dallas since his playing career ended.

Notes

• Mike Carey, in his 18th year as an official, was notified by the NFL office this week he had the assignment for the Feb. 3 game in Glendale, Ariz., making him the first black referee in Super Bowl history.

Super Bowl officials are chosen on merit, with the highest ranked at each position getting the assignment. Carey has been among the NFL's top crew chiefs for a decade and has been a Super Bowl alternate but has never been the referee.

• The Cowboys hired Hudson Houck as offensive line coach, returning him to the job he held from 1993 to 2001 and for two Super Bowl wins.

• Bill Callahan, fired as coach at Nebraska after last season, was hired as assistant head coach/offense by the Jets. Callahan, who coached Oakland to the 2002 AFC championship before it lost to Tampa Bay in the Super Bowl, has 31 years coaching experience, including nine in the NFL.

• Monte Kiffin signed a contract extension with the Buccaneers, extending the longest tenure for an NFL defensive coordinator and ending speculation he'd leave after 12 seasons. Under Kiffin's guidance, Tampa Bay has led the NFL in total defense twice.

• Justin Tuck signed a $30 million, five-year contract extension that could keep the defensive end with the Giants through 2013. Tuck had a career-high 10 sacks this season.

• Former NFL defensive lineman Dana Stubblefield pleaded guilty to lying to investigators in the BALCO steroids case, making him the first football player charged in the long-running federal investigation.

Stubblefield, a three-time Pro Bowl player who testified before the BALCO grand jury in November 2003, was charged with making false statements to federal agents about his use of performance-enhancing drugs. The statements came just three days after the NFL notified him that he'd tested positive for "the clear," or THG, a steroid linked to dozens of athletes implicated in the BALCO probe.

The plea deal calls for the 37-year-old Stubblefield to spend as much as six months in prison, though U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said she is not bound by that agreement and can sentence him to up to five years. He is to be sentenced April 25.

• Broncos TE Daniel Graham won't be charged after his arrest on suspicion of harassment of his former girlfriend. He was arrested Jan. 11 after his former girlfriend, also the mother of his child, told deputies he struck a bedpost during an argument about the sale of their home.

• Ernie "Fats" Holmes, who won two Super Bowls as an anchor of Pittsburgh's famed "Steel Curtain" defense in the 1970s, died in a car crash. He was 59.

• Georgia Frontiere, the St. Louis native who became a hometown hero when she brought the NFL's Rams from Los Angeles in 1995, died at 80. She had been hospitalized for breast cancer for several months, the Rams said in a statement posted on their Web site.