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
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.
And we still haven't played good. That's the amazing part. That excites me about the offense, that we're all sort of disappointed with how we've played. We left points out there today.
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.
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.
Like we've all seen, Shaun Alexander plays his best games in the spotlight.
I was happy to be in the NFL, living the dream. I'd get to play in the preseason when Brett would play a series or two and I got to play a quarter and a half and my whole family would come to town for the game. They never wanted tickets for the playoff games or the regular-season games, just the preseason games.
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.
That was fun n a little sloppy at times, but some of the most exciting plays I've seen all year. Coach Fox promised, by the end of the week, 'We'll put a smile on your face.' All the Seattle guys were smiling.
What you find is that the better you are at listening, the better friend you are, the better person you are, the better player you become.
When I said that, whenever it was, two years ago, that's how it was, having fun with some good friends. It's just a sign of the friendship. There's a core group of guys when I played here. There was something special about that team.
When I first got here, people talked about the 12th Man at Husky Stadium, and I didn't believe it. When we moved into Qwest Field, it's been different, especially the last three years. I've played in a lot of stadiums, and this is the loudest. Dome or no dome, our fans, for whatever reason, know how to get loud.
I wouldn't say we didn't miss a beat, it's not the same with those guys out. But we all had confidence in those guys that they would play well ... and those guys played great.