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Holmgren absent from minicamp with minor medical condition

KIRKLAND, Wash. -- Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren missed a second consecutive day of minicamp Wednesday with what a team spokesman continued to emphasize was a minor but undisclosed medical condition.

Holmgren, who turns 60 Sunday and is entering his 10th and final season as Seattle's coach, is expected on the field Wednesday. He had been expected back Tuesday.

Instead, longtime offensive coordinator and assistant head coach Gil Haskell has been running practices during the Seahawks' final minicamp before training camp begins late next month. Assistant head coach Jim Mora, whom the Seahawks have already signed to a five-year contract to be Holmgren's successor beginning in 2009, has remained in his role as the team's defensive backs coach.

Holmgren is still scheduled to address the media at the end of practice Thursday, when the minicamp ends.

Holmgren's agent, Bob Lamonte, was traveling Tuesday and did not return a message from The Associated Press.

"If it was serious, we would have made sure you already knew about it," a Seahawks spokesman said of Holmgren's issue.

In June 2005, Holmgren missed a day of a minicamp when he went to a hospital after feeling discomfort in his chest, but tests showed no problems.

He has repeatedly talked of how thankful he's been for having fine health throughout his 16 years as an NFL head coach. And he has hinted he may want to move into an executive's role with an NFL team once his Seattle contract ends following this season. At the end of last season, he playfully expressed envy for the cushier lives of friends and former coaches Bill Cowher, now a TV analyst, and Bill Parcells, now an executive with the Miami Dolphins.

Also Tuesday, a clerk for the Kirkland Municipal Court said Pro Bowl linebacker Lofa Tatupu is scheduled to be arraigned June 17 on a drunken driving charge. Tatupu, who is expected to plead not guilty, was arrested May 10 after an officer reported seeing him driving about 50 mph in a 35 mph zone near team headquarters in suburban Kirkland.

The police report said Tatupu registered blood-alcohol levels of .155 and .158 in breath test readings -- nearly twice the .08 legal intoxication threshold in Washington. Those readings came about two hours after Tatupu was stopped in the drive-thru lane of a fast-food restaurant.

Starting defensive tackle Rocky Bernard is scheduled to have a hearing Monday in Seattle Municipal Court. Bernard has pleaded not guilty to a domestic violence assault charge. The 29-year-old, in the final year of his contract, is accused of hitting his girlfriend in the head in April at a Seattle nightclub.

Tatupu and Bernard are not commenting on their cases until they are resolved.

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press

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