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
You know how many kids are walking around there that are like 11 years old named Brett? A lot. About the same as there are 50 year olds named Vince.
Obviously, he brings a lot to our offense. He's one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. He's had a great year when he's been out there and he's a playmaker. So having his athleticism and his speed and quickness on the field, I think is going to be a breath of fresh air for our offense.
We weren't worried at all. All year we have had guys step up when players go down.
We have played to earn respect, and the way you earn respect is by going out and winning the next game you play. That approach has helped us get here. I don't know too much about Pittsburgh and what their year has been like. Let's just go out and take care of business. It sounds like that is the sort of formula that has helped them get here, too.
Our focus was on this year and this team. The team in this locker room is better than the one that played last year.
Once I had this horrible start my first year as starter, and he sat down during the game and told me about this horrible game he had in 1997 against the New York Jets, but still went to the Pro Bowl. He didn't have to be the guy that he was.
All year we've had guys that we aren't necessarily counting on stepping up and being guys we can count on. In that way, today was no different for us.
I'm sure some of the coaches are aware of it, or the people who have been in the building for a long time are aware of it. But a lot of our guys are young. They don't remember, and they don't really care. What we do care about is this team, this year and what we can do.
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.