Pink splash coming at Seahawks-Colts

Pink splash coming at Seahawks-Colts

Seattle Seahawks coach Jim Mora confers with head linesman Dana McKenzie in the third quarter of an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009, in Seattle. The Bears beat the Seahawks 25-19. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

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By GREGG BELL AP Sports Writer

RENTON, Wash. (AP) - The NFL is supporting breast cancer awareness month, and games will be splashed with pink across the league on Sunday.

The Seahawks have been especially aware of the cause for years.

Former coach Mike Holmgren's wife, Kathy, survived breast cancer. Her husband often wore a pin replicating a pink ribbon on his shirt during games. Holmgren once scoffed when someone mentioned years ago that wearing the pin might technically be a violation of the league's strict game-day uniform code. He figured his family had been through too much to have such trivial concerns.

Connie Mora, mother of Jim Mora, Holmgren's successor, is another breast cancer survivor.

So Mora is proud his players will wear pink wristbands, towels - even pink stripes on their shoes - during Sunday's game at Indianapolis. Coaches will wear team caps with pink brims.

"That's really neat that the NFL does that, you know?" Mora said. "It's just all to raise awareness for breast cancer, which I'm all for.

"I think it's a great gesture."

The Colts will also have pink captain's patches on Sunday. Quarterback Peyton Manning plans on wearing a pink-brimmed cap on the sidelines when he's not in the game.

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BEING PEYTON: One of the myriad difficulties teams face while preparing to face Colts quarterback and no-huddle maestro Peyton Manning is finding a practice-squad guy capable of providing their starting defenses even a semblance of the pace and precise execution with which Manning plays.

Former Washington Husky Damon Huard, a graduate from Puyallup, Wash., High School who still lives in the area, was known as the best Manning clone - complete with the hand gestures for audibles, the barking at teammates, the quick pace. Huard's reputation grew when he was a backup with New England from 2001-03.

Mora joked he was going to call the 36-year-old Huard, who hasn't been in the NFL since 2007 with Miami, to see if he would come by for practices this week to play Manning.

The Seahawks had to settle for rookie quarterback Mike Teel. But Teel is also the backup to Seneca Wallace this week, with Matt Hasselbeck still out because of his broken rib. So the sixth-round draft choice had to dive into the Colts' and Seahawks' plays with equal attention and gusto. All week, he was flapping his arms and trying to throw like Manning during scout-team work, then turned around and ran some plays with the offense.

"I try to be (Manning)," a tired-looking Teel said, "but you can never replicate what they do on game day."

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UH-OH. IT'S EAST: Seattle has lost its last seven games played in the Eastern time zone.

Last year, Holmgren changed players' bed-check times on the road and even established an activities room at team hotels so players could watch movies or play video games to ease their bodies' adjustments to the time change and 10 a.m. Pacific kickoffs.

Mora said he is not doing anything out of the ordinary for this trip to the Eastern time zone. One slight change is the team is flying Saturday morning. Holmgren sometimes had the team leave on Fridays for trips further east than Indiana.
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