Matt Hasselbeck
Matt Hasselbeck
Matthew Michael Hasselbeck is a former American football quarterback and current analyst for ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown. He was drafted in the sixth round of the 1998 NFL Draft by the Green Bay Packers. After a season on the practice squad and two seasons backing up Brett Favre, he was traded to the Seattle Seahawks in 2001. Hasselbeck led Seattle to six playoff appearances and a Super Bowl. He was selected to three Pro Bowls and was an All-Pro in...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionFootball Player
Date of Birth25 September 1975
CityBoulder, CO
CountryUnited States of America
The thing that I've learned through the course of this week is that it means a lot to a lot of people.
The thing's hanging on top of the Space Needle.
I've never been a part of a game like this. We set out trying to get a couple of goals accomplished. I think we took care of, statistically, some things we were trying to take care of. Probably more important, we were just trying to stay healthy also.
Sometimes, you'll look at the sheet or on the PowerPoint presentation and say to yourself, 'Is it going to work? It does.
Sometimes the ball bounces your way. We seemed to get all of those bounces. Everything seemed to be going our way.
At the snap of the ball, they are moving. They are like missiles. They are hitting their gaps, they're hitting their holes, and they're getting to where they are supposed to be, their correct assignment. When you watch them on film, they look like a Super Bowl-caliber team.
At the end of the day, after all the distractions, after the national anthem, after the planes fly over - well, I guess there will be no flyover because it's in a dome. But after all that stuff, you just have to focus on playing a football game. Sixty minutes of the best football you could possibly play. That's what it's going to take.
Did it bother me at times? Sure, it bothered me. Did I ever go in the tank completely? No not really.
You feel like you're getting worse as a player. You can't throw a spiral, and you can't throw a 5-yard pass that you could throw as a 9-year-old, because you're thinking about too many things.
We're a focused team right now. For the first time, you can say, hey, I know I can count on the guy next to me. That's definitely a good feeling.
We played really, really well at times, ... It's just that we turned the ball over too many times.
That was fun -- a little sloppy at times, but some of the most exciting plays I've seen all year.
That's unfortunate because, in the biggest game of your life, you want to play with the balls you've been playing with all season.
I wasn't scared we were going to give it away or anything like that.