Hasselbeck Fought His Way to Top

"I think sometimes as a player you think you understand what the coach is looking for and you're wrong," Hasselbeck said. "A coach starts to coach you or starts to explain something to you and it's very easy for me -- I'm not a good listener -- to say, 'Yeah, yeah I got it,' but you don't really 'got it.' You're missing the point exactly."

Perhaps the mistake was Holmgren's in the very beginning when Hasselbeck was an unwanted graduate of Boston College, looking for work in an NFL that thought so little of him it didn't even invite him to its pre-draft combine. Holmgren, then coaching the Packers, took a chance and stuck Hasselbeck in a locker next to Brett Favre, perhaps the most rambunctious and bull-headed of all of Holmgren's quarterback proteges.

Too much of Favre rubbed off on the kid who was determined to make a whole league pay for not paying attention, to make the super agents kick themselves for not signing him, for leaving him in the Boston snow to run the icy steps of the team stadium telling himself he was Rocky Balboa.

Soon, the Packers' backup was scrambling across the field, throwing off one foot, figuring he, too, could fire a football between three defensive backs. This was fine to the coaches in Green Bay because being Favre's backup in those days meant you wouldn't see the field in a real game. But then in 2001, Holmgren, two years into his job in Seattle, traded for Hasselbeck. And before the quarterback had even pulled on a cap for his introductory interview, he was anointed the starting quarterback.

Which was funny because the only action photo one newspaper could produce to run with the story about Seattle's new quarterback was a snapshot of Hasselbeck holding the ball on an extra point, since throwing a pass was something he had only done 29 times to that point.

Still, the disciple of Favre would not be deterred. He burst into the Seahawks' headquarters determined to show everyone just how much he already knew. He met the new quarterbacks coach, Jim Zorn -- a man still unfamiliar with Holmgren's West Coast offense -- and began drawing the team's plays all over the chalkboards.

Zorn smiled politely, then set about to work on more important things like footwork and throwing and beating the Favre out of a quarterback who was not Favre.

It was a hard fight. Hasselbeck, so eager, was pounded early. He lost his job to Trent Dilfer and sulked at the demotion. By the middle of 2002, it appeared the scouts who thought so little of Hasselbeck were right. Then Dilfer went down with a torn Achilles'. Given a second chance, Hasselbeck thrived. His breakthrough came the last game that season, when he threw for 449 yards in a game Seattle won in overtime against the Chargers. The tying score came at the end of regulation when he shook off two tackles and plunged headfirst into the end zone.

He kept his shoes from that day as a reminder of what he could become. Holmgren was so touched that two days later, he agreed to stay and coach Hasselbeck even as management was stripping him of his general manager title, all but inviting the coach to walk away. But Holmgren had staked his future on the promise of Hasselbeck. If they were going to go down, they would go down together.

"I never lost faith in him," Holmgren said. "I think I did a little bit of disservice by throwing him in there [at the start]. If I had to do the whole thing again I would probably do it the same way. I just maybe would call the game a little different. I would protect him a little bit more if I could to stay healthy."

Then Holmgren paused and said, "To Matt's credit, after sitting down and then coming back, I think he learned a lot."

On the eve of the most important game in his career so far Hasselbeck smiled. He said the person who got him through the bleakest times when he lost his job was Dilfer, just as it was he who helped get Dilfer through the death of his son. It is Dilfer who he says showed him how to deal with the embarrassment of losing a job. He watched his replacement and he learned.

"I think when I did a better job of being a little more humble and really being a better listener and being more coachable, I think that made [the] relationship [with Holmgren] better," Hasselbeck said.

Soon Favre will be gone and there will be a gap at the top of the NFC for the next great quarterback. More and more, it is the last one anyone expected, the one who used to sit in the locker just next door.