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
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.
We just didn't play well enough. It's disappointing. It's hard. But what can you do? They played really hard on defense and we didn't execute to the best of our ability. We were close a couple times, but close doesn't cut it.
We just didn't execute to the best of our ability today. We were close a couple of times, but close doesn't get it done.
It's a great feeling in our locker room right now, because we did come together. There is something a little bit more special about fighting through adversity and hanging in there in a tough game against a really good defense. Guys get hurt. Pork Chop Womack filled in at left tackle for Walter Jones for a couple of plays. He said something like, 'Did I make you nervous in there when Walt was out?' I told him no.
I think every team I have been on you have a group of guys that are really helping pull the team in the right direction. Then you have a couple guys that are pulling it in a wrong direction. Everybody else is sort of on the fence,
I'm not dwelling on it. I've moved on to next week. It's nice to have a couple of days off. It was an emotionally, physically draining game.
Politics can be very mean and dirty. The things politicians say about each other, and what activists say, I had a brief glimpse of that for a couple of days. If I ever had any questions about whether I wanted to run for office, I now know the answer - I don't.
We just had opportunities to score touchdowns, but we didn't score touchdowns. We were moving the ball fine, rhythm, time of possession, first downs, yards...we just couldn't score touchdowns.
We were really focused on the task at hand rather than, 'Oh, my gosh, we're in this big game.
We went 8-0. We were the team that never punted. You can go back and see the trophy. It's printed on there.
It was tough. There was a lot of stuff I'd never been through. I'd never really been the guy. I'd never had to play through injury. I really had never played in the NFL.
It was a one game deal here. We were talking about this game and this game only...I have learned this week that people dogged the Seahawks because they don't think there is history, but there is history here.
It was a chance I shouldn't have taken. They had a good plan and executed it well. They blitzed early on, but we did a pretty good job of picking it up. After that, they kept seven and eight back in coverage a lot of the time.
They are actually fun to watch. It's fun to watch film because they are so good. But at the same time you realize you have to play them this week.