SEATTLE - Mike Holmgren still has San Francisco in his heart.

It's where he grew up, playing quarterback and some years later getting his first coaching job at Lincoln High. He got his first NFL coaching job in San Francisco, too, handling quarterbacks for the 49ers before becoming their offensive coordinator.

Now the coach and general manager of the Seattle Seahawks, Holmgren said Monday night's game against San Francisco "isn't a personal thing." But he admitted there are different feelings when the 49ers are across the field.

"A big part of my family still lives in the Bay Area," Holmgren said. "I still have a lot of friends and folks there, policemen, firemen and all the people I used to teach in school are there. In the summer, we have a little house we go to there.

"To say that it's just another ball game, I think I'd be less than honest."

Holmgren reminisced last week about walking into Candlestick Park during the late 1960s. Dick Nolan coached the 49ers and John Brodie was the quarterback, but the team was a few years away from playoff appearances in 1971 and '72.

"You could just walk in, buy a ticket and sit anywhere," he recalled.

Bill Walsh won three Super Bowls as coach in San Francisco, and Holmgren was his quarterbacks coach for the third in 1988. Holmgren moved up to offensive coordinator the next year when George Seifert took over the 49ers and won another Super Bowl.

Holmgren left in 1992 to become head coach in Green Bay. His turning point with the Packers came when Green Bay visited San Francisco in the 1995 divisional playoffs. The Packers won 27-17.

"That was a very emotional game for me," Holmgren said. "True story. I almost walked, just by habit, into the (49ers) locker room, kind of in a daze. I snapped out of it by the time the game started.

"But I was kind of walking around, talking to security guys and guys I knew, and I almost walked right into their locker room," he said.

That's not the end of Holmgren's connections in this game. His staff in Green Bay included Steve Mariucci as quarterbacks coach. Mariucci now is the head coach in San Francisco.

"I've got a picture of him on my wall," Mariucci said. "It's because I think a lot of him, not only as a coach, but also as a human being."

Holmgren also coached numerous Monday night games with the 49ers and Green Bay, but this is the first Monday night game in Seattle in 10 years.

"It's a big deal," Holmgren said. "When I was with the 49ers, we were on a lot. In Green Bay, we weren't on a lot in the beginning but then we were on a lot. It's my hope that we can eventually be on a lot here."