Nicknamed "Fats", he was selected by the Steelers in the eighth round of the 1971 NFL draft and won two Super Bowl titles with the team.

While quarterback sacks were not an official NFL statistic until 1982, the Steelers credit Holmes with a career total of 40, eighth on the franchise's all-time list.

[citation needed] Prior to his third season in 1973, Holmes had an emotional breakdown while driving on the Ohio Turnpike on March 16, firing shots at a police helicopter as it pursued him.

[13] Holmes played six seasons with the Steelers before being traded due to on-going weight problems in 1978 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he failed to make the team coming out of preseason.

Until his death, Holmes lived in Texas on a ranch near Wiergate, a small town with a population of 461 near the Louisiana border, where he had his own church and was an ordained minister.

He was driving alone when his car left the road and rolled several times, about 80 miles (130 km) from Houston, according to a Texas Department of Public Safety dispatcher.