It was Week 8 of the 1999 season as Mike Holmgren led his team out onto Lambeau Field for a Monday night showdown.

Holmgren was no stranger to the rowdy confines of Lambeau. After all, he’d helped take the Packers from a moribund franchise to Super Bowl champs within his first five years.

But what was different on that night in 1999 was where Holmgren and his staff set up on the sideline for the game. He was now on the visitor’s side, getting ready to square off against the Packers, now as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks.

Holmgren’s path to Seattle was not one many people in Green Bay expected, least of all Packers quarterback Brett Favre, according to the Milwaukee-Wicsonsin Journal Sentinel.

“Everyone talked about him leaving. I said, ‘You’re crazy,’ ” Favre recalled. “I was so naïve. The year before, at the Super Bowl we lost, that week, all the press conferences, they asked the question to me: what I thought about Mike Holmgren possibly leaving. I thought it was the stupidest question I’d ever heard . . . Well, a year later, he left, and I just expected us to be together forever.”

Just two seasons removed from a Super Bowl title and one year removed from a Super Bowl appearance, Holmgren left the Packers after the 1998 season to become the head coach and general manager of the Seattle Seahawks. The lure of assembling his own team, along with a long-term contract, was too appealing for the coach to pass up.

In his seven years as Packers head coach, Holmgren went 75-37 in the regular season and took Green Bay to back-to-back Super Bowl appearances in Super Bowl XXXI and Super Bowl XXXII, respectively.

In Seattle, Holmgren led the Seahawks, who were then still in the AFC West, to a division title in his first season, getting them to the postseason for the first time since 1988.

Holmgren helped create the foundation for the successful franchise Seattle has become today. He eventually brought Matt Hasselbeck to Seattle from Green Bay, giving the Seahawks a true franchise quarterback. He selected running back Shaun Alexander in the 2000 draft, and watched him go on to set a then-NFL record with 28 touchdowns in his 2005 MVP season.

Holmgren was instrumental in setting up the franchise for long term success. He took the Seahawks to their first Super Bowl appearance after the 2005 season. They would lose to the AFC Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, 21-10, in what today still stands as one of the most poorly officiated Super Bowl games ever.

After going 4-12 in 2008, Holmgren stepped away as Seahawks coach. In his 10 seasons with Seattle, Holmgren went 86-74 with one Super Bowl appearance.

So, when they kick off on Sunday, both Seattle and Green Bay should remember the connection they share with the man who helped bring winning back to their franchises.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Holmgren’s Seahawks won that Monday night game against the Packers, 27-7.

Not a bad homecoming.