To be a starter, he had to admit he was flawed. To become a Pro Bowler, he first had to be benched. Three games into his career as the Seattle Seahawks quarterback, Matt Hasselbeck was booed and benched. The signal-calling heir-apparent apparently wasn’t .
Hasselbeck had spent two years as Brett Favre's seldom-used backup at Green Bay, but he had been cast as a rising star. Although his arrival in Seattle had been much heralded, he was booed off the field in his first home start as a Seahawk in 2001. It was hardly the welcome he expected.
"Being around football, I had heard guys getting booed," says Hasselbeck, whose father was a tight end in the NFL. "But it's different when you're the guy getting booed. It's tough to ignore."
But Hasselbeck, encouraged by his father's own bench-to-starter NFL career and by his own strong Christian faith, has survived to become one of the league's new rising stars. The benchwarmer-turned-2004-Pro Bowler last year triggered the NFC’s most potent offense (369.7 yards and 27.2 points per game) and led the Seahawks to their first Super Bowl.
However, before Hasselbeck would regain his starting spot, he needed to admit that he needed to change his game. Rather than complain, blame others or mope, Hasselbeck worked harder than ever.
"He could have lashed out or just gone in the tank or been so frustrated and demanded a trade," says Jim Zorn, the Seahawks quarterback coach. "That's not how Matt reacted."
Instead, Hasselbeck listened to Zorn's critiques and did as he was told. That's not always the response of a pro athlete, someone who is often the pampered star from grade school to high school to college. If Zorn told Hasselbeck to run a play a certain way, the young quarterback ran the play exactly that way, no ad-lib, no modification, simply as asked.
"He came under the authority of others, and it's very difficult for a star player to have that kind of humility," Zorn says. " I think as a Christian, Matt knows how to come under the submission of the Lord, and that's something that translates to life."
Go West, Young Man
Six years ago, Hasselbeck came to Seattle in a trade with the Green Bay Packers, who had drafted him in the 1998 sixth round out of Boston College. In Green Bay, Hasselbeck quickly earned the nickname "Mr. August" for his sensational performance in preseason play. But come September, Favre took the field, and Hasselbeck watched from the sidelines.
Expectations were high upon Hasselbeck’s arrival in Seattle. He had only 29 pass attempts in two seasons, but the Seahawks had traded a first-round draft pick to reunite the quarterback with his former Green Bay head coach, Mike Holmgren. Hasselbeck was happy about the move. He was out from under Favre's shadow and was finally going to get his chance.
It didn't come that easy.
"I had to earn respect," Hasselbeck says. "These guys didn't know me. For me to show up and from day one expect to have their respect and trust wasn't fair. I had to prove myself first."
Gaining that respect was a struggle. His problems were more related to decision-making than mechanics. Hasselbeck’s tendency to tuck and run when the pocket broke down kept getting the 6-foot, 4-inch, 223-pound quarterback in trouble.
"Mentally, he had to learn to discipline himself," Zorn says. "He had to be more disciplined in a read-and-throw versus [thinking], I don't like this. I'm going to move out of the pocket and do my own thing.”
Some of that tendency might have come from the influence of Favre, the master of improvisation. But before becoming a Favre, Hasselbeck had to become a better Hasselbeck.
"I really don't think I was ever trying to be like Brett," Hasselbeck says. "I was just trying to be me."
Ground Gain
"Matt has come a long way," Zorn says. "He came in here as the starter and got knocked to the background. That was unexpected in his life."
So was Hasselbeck’s response. "Your testimony is louder when you're going through hard times," he says. "It's easy when everything is going your way."
It wasn't so easy when he was benched and relegated to backup once again. Hasselbeck heard the coach’s criticisms and the fans boos and the chants for then second-stringer Trent Dilfer, who is also a Christian and a close friend of Hasselbeck.
"I think I handled it pretty good, but it definitely affected my confidence," Hasselbeck says. "What I've learned through all of this is not to point fingers, to listen to criticism and not to blame others."
That response didn’t come naturally at first. "When a coach would say something, I'd say, 'Didn't you see the receiver's route?' " Hasselbeck says. “I have to admit, I was a little immature at times. I'd play the blame-game. But you know, this isn't something you can coach. It's something you have to go through. I realized I needed to change a lot of things. I also needed to block out the crowd, block out the negative things.”
Turnaround
Midway through the 2002 season, Hasselbeck got another chance at starter when Dilfer injured his Achilles tendon. In those last six games of the 2002 season, Hasselbeck passed for more than 300 yards four times, twice topping 400 yards. Despite filling the backup role for the season’s first half, Hasselbeck finished the year as the NFC’s leader in completion percentage (63.7) and was its second-highest-rated passer (87.8), completing 267 of 419 passes for 3,075 yards, with 15 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He was perhaps the hottest quarterback in the league for the last half of the season.
Still, he was widely considered a fill-in as Dilfer's Achilles tendon mended. The final game of the 2002 season proved to be his turning point. The promising ‘Hawks had struggled through another losing season, and Holmgren's coaching career was on the brink. Against that backdrop, Hasselbeck put together a hope-inspiring performance, throwing for 449 yards by completing 36 of 53 passes with three touchdowns in a 31-28 victory against San Diego. It was a game like no other Seattle quarterback had ever had.
At that moment, Hasselbeck sealed the trust of his teammates, coaches and fans. The starting job was his for good. (Dilfer was eventually traded to Cleveland.)
During the Seahawks’ 2005 run to the Super Bowl, Hasselbeck set a team record for highest season passer rating at 98.2. He completed 294 of 449 passes for 3,459 yards and 24 touchdowns with only nine interceptions. But in a 21-10 loss to Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl, the Seahawks couldn’t come up with the big plays.
This season, Hasselbeck and the Seahawks seemed to pick up right where they left off, although injuries to Hasselbeck and reigning MVP Shaun Alexander slowed them early on.
Whether his personal and team success continue on the field, Hasselbeck has learned something about his testimony as a Christian. "It's easy in good times to be able to say the right thing," Hasselbeck says. "But so what? The true test of a person is who they are during those difficult times." 
