The Seattle Seahawks plan to announce today their succession plan for when coach Mike Holmgren leave after the 2008 season, and those plans involve former Atlanta Falcons coach Jim Mora.

Mora, if you’ll remember, coached the Falcons for four seasons, taking the team to the NFC Championship game against Philadelphia in 2004. It was all downhill from there, though, and in 2007 he famously said in a radio interview he’d take the head coaching position at the University of Washington. Falcons owner Arthur Blank didn’t care too much for that and fired Mora at the end of the season. (This would of course set the stage for Blank to be betrayed again by Bobby Petrino.)

Well, at least Mora landed close to his dream job.

Mike Holmgren can’t very well blame the weather for his Seahawks getting blown out by the Packers 42-20. Heck, they spotted Seattle two touchdowns in the first four minutes off turnovers, but it didn’t matter once Green Bay got going. Where was that vaunted defense we heard so much about last week? Oh that’s right, they were playing the Washington Redskins then.

There wasn’t any snow in the air at Gillette Stadium last night but everyone expected the Patriots to bury the Jaguars under a blizzard of points. Surprisingly, Jacksonville played a very good first half and stayed right with New England, thanks in part to kicker Stephen Gostkowski who missed a 35-yard field goal.

Unfortunately for the teal and black crowd, the Jags had to come out and play the second half and that’s where the Pats really took off, outscoring the Jags 21-6. So much for the upset of the century, I guess we’ll have to wait until next week to see if someone can stop that New England juggernaut from reaching the Super Bowl.

Riding shotgun on the way to Lambeau Field — and getting special attention from the flight attendants — should be the Seahawks defense. They stonewalled the Skins on the ground and came after Todd Collins from every direction. Marcus Trufant and Jordan Babineaux both came away with pick sixes in the fourth quarter to ice the game for Seattle.

Poor Collins, though. His brilliant and unexpected career as a starter after a dozen years in the league probably just ended with the Redskins season. Had he led Washington deeper into the playoffs, who knows what could have happened, but now he’ll probably just get benched again next year — a flash in the pan, a one hit wonder — replaced by someone younger and prettier.

Speaking of pretty, Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger used to date Natalie Gulbis. Now she is pretty, and a way better girlfriend if you ask me than Jessica Simpson. But they broke up for reasons unknown and now Big Ben is on the outside looking in as far as the NFL playoffs are concerned.

Last night’s AFC Wildcard game was virtually a repeat performance of the regular season meeting between Pittsburgh and Jacksonville: The Jaguars took an early lead, the Steelers battled back, but the Jags had just enough left in the tank to come away with the victory. Game ball goes to quarterback David Garrard for his 32-yard scramble on fourth down in the final minute that kept Jacksonville’s season alive. Or maybe it should go to Maurice Jones-Drew for his 96-yard kickoff return and a 43-yard touchdown reception. Or maybe Rashean Mathis, who had two interceptions in the first half, including a pick six. Seriously, none of these guys got voted to the Pro Bowl?

Jacksonville has to wait until the conclusion of today’s game between San Diego and Tennessee to find out where they will be playing next, but odds are the Jags will be traveling to Massachusetts to face the unbeaten New England Patriots. They’ll need to be hitting on all cylinders if they’re to beat the Pats on the road, but they’ll have everyone outside of Boston rooting for them.

Yes, that’s right, traded. As in the Seahawks exchanged a tangible asset in order to add Frylock to its roster. If you’re the Browns, who wouldn’t jump at that offer? That’s like somone saying, “I’ll pay you five dollars to breathe the air outside.” Unless the Seagals traded an eighth-round draft pick they overpaid for an emergency QB because the Browns probably would have just released him anyway. What a way to run a team.

Of course, this has led to rampant speculation that Brady Quinn might see action as a starter this week, but don’t bet on it. Browns GM Randy Phil Savage is determined not to make the same mistake they made in 1999 with Tim Couch, who got tossed into the mix after Ty Detmer was benched following a blowout loss to Pittsburgh. This time they’ll wait at least one game before putting their first-round draft pick in front of the firing squad.

Town Tattler and noted coffee addict and Starbucks shill Peter King is reporting today the league will soon announce the cancellation of the exhibition game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks that was planned for this Fall. According to Mr. Coffee Nerd, the NFL wants to devote all of its attention on the its other international conquest, a regular season game between the Giants and Dolphins planned for 2008. Apparently Roger Goodell has been studying his history and realized the danger of trying to fight a war on two fronts simultaneously. (As sad as it is, yes, a professional sports league is demonstrating better military strategy than our own government.)

But could this be true? Is the mighty NFL admitting it may have made a mistake in announcing this ambitious plan just last year? Could Goodell be suggesting there are limits to what the NFL can do and how far and how fast it can expand? (Someone alert Gary Bettman . . . please.) I think the last time the league backed down from a challenge, Pete Rozell gave in and agreed to merge with the AFL, and we know how that deal worked out. Now the original NFL, residing in the NFC, is just a motley bunch of wannabes and alsorans that can’t tie their shoelaces while the media darlings of the AFL/AFC bask in the glory of Super Bowl titles.

So I’m a little disappointed in the league backing down from its commitment to help fight world communism. Battling against liberal socialism in Europe is fine and all but not nearly as important as stamping out communism and transforming the world’s largest economy into a capitalist society. Because you know once those Chi-Coms get a taste of NFL action they’ll want more. They’ll want their own professional football league with their own selfish, multi-millionaire players and greedier billionaire owners. You think communism can survive in that environment? Not likely mate.