165 combined tackles. He also intercepted one pass and deflected four others. In his seventh season, Holecek was released very late in training camp in salary cap move by a new Bills head coach and GM. Holecek was quickly signed by the San Diego Chargers. The Bills who ranked 3rd in total defense in the league in 2000, finished 3-13 without Holecek and others in 2001. John played in San Diego for one partial season; he finished the last five games of the season on injured reserve as a knee problems limited him to just 11 injury-riddled appearances. Holecek then signed with the Atlanta Falcons in his 8th season (2002). Holecek was reunited with Falcon defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, who tutored Holecek for six seasons while serving as defensive coordinator or head coach of the Buffalo Bills. Holecek started the first 11 games for the play-off bound Falcons and was the team's second leading tackler before breaking his upper wrist/forearm. Holecek seriously re-injured his right arm in the last game fo the regular season and the resulting wrist surgery was career ending. NFL career statistics Loyola Academy coaching career After retiring from the NFL, Holecek returned to Illinois to work in finance and assist coaching high school football at St. Ignatius in Chicago. At the insistence of Nick Rassas (NFL safety, Notre Dame All-American, and Loyola Academy graduate) Holecek applied for the head coach position at Loyola Academy, a private college preparatory in Wilmette, Illinois. NFL coaches Marv Levy and Wade Phillips called the school's AD Pat Mahoney on Holecek's behalf. Mahoney remembered “You could see that he was a teacher of the game... He was smart and driven. He wasn't going to do anything half-heartedly.” Since taking the reins in 2006, Holecek's teams have been to the playoffs every year, which includes sixteen IHSA State Playoff appearances (the exception being the COVID-19 impacted 2020-21 year, where there were no state playoffs held), and led Loyola to four consecutive State Final games from 2015 through 2018. Holecek's teams have won at least 11 games for the last nine consecutive years (as of 2018). Loyola plays in the Chicago Catholic League Blue division. Loyola has won outright or shared six of the last eight CCLB conference titles (as of 2018). Holecek's career coaching record is 146–30 with an 83% overall winning percentage; including over 91% of games in the last four