In my opinion: Matt Hasselbeck

Disclaimer: Usually journalist and especially good journalist don’t usually use “I” in articles and recently I’ve been trying to improve on that and just stick with reporting. However I’ve decided to try a little experiment and create a new series of articles titled “In my opinion” which will include players, coaches and other aspects of the NFL an give my opinion on those topics. So articles titled “In my opinion” will be the only time I use “I” in an article, but when it comes to reporting on the Seahawks and the draft, “I” won’t be included. Just needed to clear that with this disclaimer.

Matthew Hasselbeck has come a long way since growing up in Boulder Colorado. Hasselbeck, now 34-years old went from receiving honorable mention All-American in high school to being selected in the sixth round in the 1999 draft by the Green Bay Packers all the way to being a starting quarterback with the Seattle Seahawks for eight years and counting.

Hasselbeck became a part of the NFL in 1999 when Mike Holmgren and Andy Reid (Packers QB coach at the time) selected the Boston College quarterback in the sixth round of the 1999 NFL draft. At the time Reid was pressing harder for Hasselbeck then Holmgren was but neither coach really saw Hasselbeck as a franchise quarterback.

For the first two years (99-01) Hasselbeck was holding field goal kicks and a clip board as he sat behind future hall-of-famer Brett Favre.

In 1999, a year after the Packers selected Matt Hasselbeck; his head coach Mike Holmgren left the Green Bay Packers organization for a lucrative offer from Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen to become the team’s head coach and general manager.

Holmgren did not forget about Hasselbeck and two years later, on March 2nd 2001 Mike Holmgren traded the Seahawks 10th overall pick and two third round draft picks in exchange for the young Hasselbeck as well as the Packers 17th overall pick and a seventh round pick in the 2001 NFL draft.

What came of that trade?

The Seahawks landed their franchise quarterback in Matt Hasselbeck as well as a future cornerstone of their offensive line, Steve Hutchinson with the 17th overall pick.

The Packers selected Florida State defensive end Jamal Reynolds who totaled 18 tackles and three sacks from 2001-2004 before his NFL career was over. Reynolds was plagued by injuries that ultimately ended his NFL career when he failed his physical with the Indianapolis Colts which voided a potential trade. He was released and signed by the Cleveland Browns but failed to make the teams regular season roster in 2004 and has not played in the NFL since.

In his first two seasons with the Seahawks Matt Hasselbeck battled with veteran quarterback Trent Dilfer for the starting quarterback job. However with an excellent finish to the 2002 season Hasselbeck became the teams’ full-time starter in 2003.

Hasselbeck did not disappoint in his first full season as a starting quarterback in the NFL. He compiled 3,841 yards passing and 26 touchdowns while only throwing fifteen interceptions. Hasselbeck also led the Seahawks to a 10-6 regular season record and a wildcard berth for the first time since 1998.

He continued his success in 2004 by leading the Seahawks to their first division title since the team joined the NFC in the alignment in 2002. Hasselbeck missed two games during the regular season and his touchdown total dropped from 26 to 22.

However Hasselbeck’s mouth got caught in the divisional round of the 04 playoffs against the Green Bay Packers. Hasselbeck went out in overtime to call the coin toss and once the referee announced Seattle had won the toss the question came “do you want the ball?”

Hasselbeck’s famous response was “We want the ball, and we’re gonna score!” Shortly thereafter Hasselbeck threw a pick-six to Packers corner back Al Harris which sealed the Seahawks playoff fiat.

In 2005 Matt Hasselbeck made up for his prediction in the 2004 playoffs by leading the Seahawks to a 13-3 regular season record, the most wins in franchise history as well as the franchises’ first trip to the Super Bowl. Hasselbeck received his first all-pro award in 2005 and led what was arguably the best single season Seahawks team in franchise history.

2006 Hasselbeck took a step back after starting the season 4-1 he went down in week seven with a sprained right MCL, caused by Minnesota linebacker E.J Henderson. He came back to lead the Seahawks to a 9-7 record and made it back to the playoffs after losing the Super Bowl the previous year.

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo stole the show in the closing seconds in what fans will remember the most about the wildcard game between the Seahawks and Cowboys. Romo botched a 19-yard field goal snap with 1:19 left in the game.

The Seahawks lost in overtime to the Chicago Bears in the divisional round of the playoffs after Robbie Gold kicked the game winning field goal.

2007 became Matt Hasselbeck’s “comeback” year when the Seahawks, led by Mike Holmgren’s decision to become a pass first and pass only offense with the absence of a starting running back. Hasselbeck had his best statistical season in 2007 when he put up 28 touchdowns while only throwing twelve interceptions. He also posted a career best 91.4 quarterback rating.

However since his great season in 2007, Matt Hasselbeck’s career has continued to degrade with each snap that he takes, which hasn’t been that often.

In 2008 Hasselbeck played only seven games due to several injuries that would devastate any quarterback. He suffered a severe back injury that effected nerves in his lower back, which causes him to lose power in his legs and ultimately led to a knee injury.

Hasselbeck suffered a bulging disk in the pre-season, a knee injury against the Giants on October 5th and a helmet-to-helmet hit against the Arizona Cardinals.

The loss of Hasselbeck, along with several other key players on the Seahawks led to the Seahawks finishing with a 4-12 record and the fourth overall pick in the 2009 NFL draft.

2009 started out questionable under new head coach Jim Mora Jr. Hasselbeck threw two interceptions in the first quarter against the St. Louis Rams in week one before bouncing back to finish with three touchdowns and 276 yards passing and a 28-0 win over the St. Louis Rams at home.

However in week two he suffered two broken ribs when he attempted to dive into the end zone with under two minutes left in the half. Patrick Willis went helmet first into the back of Hasselbeck and he went downhill from there. He missed the next three games before coming back in week five against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Hasselbeck threw four touchdowns in a 42-0 win which seemed to be a good sign for Hasselbeck and the Seahawks coming off three straight loses.

However in week six at home against the Arizona Cardinals the Seahawks had the franchises worst game flat out. Hasselbeck finished the game completing only ten passes and a completion percentage of only 34.

Hasselbeck would go on to finish the 2009 season with seventeen touchdowns and seventeen interceptions while crossing the 3000 yard mark for the sixth time in his NFL career.

So going through Matt Hasselbeck’s career what you find is one of toughest, grinding and competitive quarterbacks in NFL history. Hasselbeck has been the face of the Seattle Seahawks franchise for nine seasons out of the ten that he’s been with the organization.

He’s gone to three Pro Bowls in his 12 years in the NFL (03,05,07) and also led the Seahawks to five straight playoff appearances from 2003-2008. He led the Seahawks to their only Super Bowl appearance in franchise history in 2005 and emerged as one of the league’s top quarterbacks from 2004-2007 before injuries took away his playing time.

Hasselbeck is arguably the best quarterback in Seahawks history alongside Dave Krieg who finished his Seahawks career with a record of 70-49 while Hasselbeck sits at 58-45.

So In my opinion Matt Hasselbeck is the best quarterback in Seattle Seahawks history for many reasons and even though he does not have hall-of-fame numbers Matt Hasselbeck’s career is not over just yet. If Hasselbeck has three great seasons left in the tank and if he can still get the Seahawks to win their first Lombardi trophy then Hasselbeck could be mentioned in the hall-of-fame but not until then.

However in my opinion if Hasselbeck had not suffered the amount of injuries he has gone through in his career I think his success rate might be just a little bit higher over the past two seasons. Now it’s up to the new era of Seahawks football, John Schneider and Pete Carroll to revive Matt Hasselbeck’s career.

You can follow Lars at Twitter http://twitter.com/larshanson

Check out Lars’ sports blog: http://hansonsportsblog.blogspot.com/

Brett Favre or Kurt Warner? Who has had the better NFL career?

In the NBA you have Kobe or LeBron. In the NHL you have Crosby vs Ovechkin. For the most part in the NFL it’s always been Brady vs Manning deciding who’s the best quarterback in the NFL.

I decided to go beyond the usual comparison of who is the best quarterback in the NFL right now with Manning and Brady. I decided to compare two forty year old quarterbacks who’ve been making “comebacks” for three years now.

Warner with Arizona and Favre with Green Bay, NY Jets and most recently Minnesota.

I’ve never heard someone compare Brett Favre and Kurt Warner so I decided to be the first and even though I was born and raised by my father (Randy Hanson) who was a Green Bay Packers fan now turned Oakland Raiders fan I don’t have a bias for or against either quarterback.

Adding the two future HOF’s together you get two Super Bowl titles, five MVP’s, 16 Pro Bowl selections, 101,673 passing yards, 705 TD’s and 445 Int’s along with tons of other milestones and stats.

Just the shier volume of those stats says a lot about the two quarterbacks. However the question is which one has had a better NFL career?

Before I break down both players I would like to explain the question. When comparing who has had the better career I’m going by stats, Super Bowls, awards and team success (determined by win/loss record).

With that being said it’s time to break down arguably two of the best QB’s in NFL history along the likes of Joe Montana, Joe Namath and John Elway among many others.

Brett Favre:

69,329 passing yards (1st all time)
497 passing touchdowns (1st all time)
6,083/9,811 completions
86.4 QB rating

11 Pro Bowl selections
3 first team all pro selections
3 second team all pro selections
3x NFL MVP
2x NFC champion
Super Bowl XXXI winner (31)
181 career wins
13 playoff wins
Madden 2009 cover boy(just for humor)

Examination: The good old boy from Gulfport Mississippi was a second round draft pick of the Atlanta Falcons in the 1991 NFL draft. Favre only lasted one year in Atlanta, attempting only four passes in that time. He was traded to the Green Bay Packers for running back Tony Smith and a first round draft pick. Favre’s NFL career started off unlike any other.

After being traded to Green Bay he replaced starting quarterback Don Majkowski in the second game of the 1992 season and after Majkowski had to be finished for the season by week three Favre became the starting quarterback and finished his first season in Green Bay with a 9-7 record missing the playoffs by only one game. He was elected to his first Pro Bowl that season.

Favre led the Packers to their first playoff birth in 1993 while earning his second consecutive Pro Bowl selection. That off season Favre agreed to a $19 million dollar, five year deal.

In 1994 Favre led the Packers to consecutive playoff appearances. A first since the Vince Lombardi era.

From 1995 to 1997 Brett Favre won three consecutive MVP awards in which was arguably one of the best times in his career, which also came at a price.

In May of 1996 Favre went into rehabilitation for Vicodin addiction, which caused a seizure during a hospital visit for various injuries.

From 1998-2002 Favre was entering the middle portion of his now storied NFL career and in 2001 Brett Favre signed a “lifetime contract” with the Green Bay Packers. $180 million, ten year contract to remain a Green Bay Packer, essentially for the rest of his NFL life. Something that would eventually be broken.

On December 21st 2003 Brett’s father died of a heart attack. The next day Favre elected to play on Monday Night Football in one of if not the most memorable games in NFL history, if not at least for Brett Favre. On that night, a day after Favre lost his father he threw for four touchdowns in the first half, 399 total yards in a 41-7 win over the Oakland Raiders.

After the game he said “I knew that my dad would have wanted me to play. I love him so much and I love this game. It’s meant a great deal to me, to my dad, to my family, and I didn’t expect this kind of performance. But I know he was watching tonight”.

2007 could be nicknamed Brett Favre’s milestone year for the simple face that he broke at least three major NFL records in one year. Favre passed John Elway on the all time wins list with 149 against the Giants. Favre passed Dan Marino’s all time touchdown record on September 30th against the Vikings in which he connected with Greg Jennings on a 15 yard slant route to give Favre his 421st touchdown pass in his career.

Favre’s first attempt at retirement came in 2008 when the Packers decided to go with Aaron Rogers as the starting quarterback, at the same time keeping Favre’s contract and not granting him his release.

On August 7th 2008 the Packers traded Favre to the New York Jets for a conditional fourth round pick. In New York Favre started out hot but that diminished toward the end of the season when he was having problems with his throwing shoulder.

One year after trading for Favre the Jets released the quarterback and he was able to sign with any of the 32 NFL teams should he decide to. However Favre made it very clear which team he was going to play for if the deal came right.

That team was the Minnesota Vikings.

After informing Vikings officials that he was retired he later changed his mind and on August 18th 2009 the Vikings and Favre came to an agreement on a two year $25 million dollar contract.

Now five months later the Vikings wait has paid off with the team only one win away from a shot at Super Bowl title.

So reflecting on Brett Favre’s illustrious, history and towards the end controversial career, it’s without a doubt in anyone’s mind that Brett Favre is a sure lock for the NFL hall of fame in Canton Ohio. The only thing standing in the way is Favre’s retirement which no one knows when that will truly happen.

However, is Favre’s career better than Kurt Warner’s? Let’s see.

Kurt Warner:

32,344 passing yards
208 touchdown passes
2,666/4,070 completions
93.7 QB rating

5 Pro Bowl selections
2x MVP
2x first team all pro
Super Bowl XXXIV champion
Super Bowl XXXIV MVP

Examination: Starting out as an undrafted free agent in the 1994 NFL draft being signed by the Green Bay Packers. When Warner was signed he was the fourth quarterback on the depth chart along with Brett Favre(wow two HOF QB’s on the same team), Mark Brunell and Ty Detmer.

Warner was released before the start of the 1994 season. However Steve Mariucc, who at the time was the Packers quarterbacks coach with Mike Holmgren told Warner that he had a lot of potential but was not ready to be an NFL quarterback, not yet.

After Warner was released by the Packers a well known part of his life his the fact that he was working at Hy-Vee stocking shelves.

Warner signed on with an Arena Football league team called the Iowa Barnstormers where he had great success in his short tenure with the league. He’s 12th on the all time list of best AFL players of all time.

In 1998 Warner signed on with the St Louis Rams and was then sent to the NFLE Amsterdam Admirals where he excelled to the top of the league. He returned to the NFL as the Rams third string quarterback.

Warner, much like Favre got the opportunity to start in 1999 when newly signed quarterback Trent Green went down with a torn ACL during the pre season. Warner was named the starting quarterback with the support of Marshall Faulk, Torry Holt and others on the Rams offense.

What do you know the luck of these two quarterbacks continued an in 1999 Kurt Warner exploded onto the scene throwing 41 touchdowns and 4,353. That was the beginning of what was nicknamed the “Greatest Show on Turf”.

In the following season Warner continued his top performance by leading the Rams into the playoffs but due to their poor defensive team the Rams lost to the New Orleans Saints in the first round of the playoffs.

In 2001 Warner led the Rams to an NFL best 6-0 start for three years in a row and a 14-2 record to end the season. The Rams would wind up losing a heart breaker in Super Bowl XXXVI when Adam Vinatieri kicked the game winning field goal to give the Pats the win and the title.

For the next two seasons Warner fell off the table, dropping from his Super Bowl caliber talent down to eventually being replaced in 2003 by Marc Bulger.

In 2004 the Rams elected to release Warner and in two short days later he signed with the New York Giants. He was named the teams starting quarterback in 2004 but was eventually replaced by Eli Manning due to two game losing streak. Before that Warner had the team winning five of their first seven games.

In 2005 Warner’s career would take him to the desert out west when he signed a four million dollar one year contract with the Arizona Cardinals and Dennis Green. Warner was mediocre at best and due to a groin injury he was replaced as the starter by Josh McCown.

Green named McCown the starter for the rest of the 05 season but with McCown struggling two games into his new role as the starter Cardinals head coach Dennis Green gave the job back to Warner. Warner finished the season on a high note defeating his former Rams team before he went down with an MCL injury in week 15.

On February 14th 2006 the Cardinals and Warner came to an agreement on a three year $22 million dollar contract.

To start out the 2006 season Warner broke 20,000 passing yards in only his 76th game becoming the second fastest to reach 20,000 yards.

However two weeks later Warner was replaced by rookie quarterback Matt Leinart where he would remain the start until he went down with a shoulder injury in week 16 giving Warner another start to finish the season.

To start 2007 Matt Leinart was named the Cardinals starting quarterback but due to poor performance in both week three and week four Warner had to finish both games for the struggling quarterback. Leinart was placed on IR and Warner finished out the 2007 season with almost all career highs in touchdowns, yards and completion percentage.

Starting 2008 new Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt named Matt Leinart the starting quarterback for the third year in a row but this time Whisenhunt said that Warner could be the starting quarterback come week one.

And that’s exactly what happened.

In 2008 Warner led the Cardinals to their first division title and playoff birth since 1998. The Cardinals where the biggest underdog in the playoffs and not one person, analyst or fan outside of Arizona gave them a shot but they did what any underdog did and prove everyone wrong.

Warner’s career year kept on going and he led the Cardinals to their first Super Bowl appearance against the Pittsburgh Steelers. For about five minutes in the fourth quarter the Cardinals had the lead but Ben Roethlisberger pulled a miracle in the last minute of the game.

Roethlisberger connected on an amazing reception with Santonio Holmes with :42 seconds left in the game to give the Steelers the lead.

In the off season he contimplated retirement but said he would only play for the Arizona Cardinals. Warner eventually resigned with the Cardinals on March 4th 2009 on a two year $23 million dollar deal.

Warner led the Cardinals back to the playoffs and another NFC West title in 2009. Warner became apart of NFL history when he led the Cardinals to a 51-45 win over the Green Bay Packers. The two teams combined for 96 points, the highest combine total in NFL playoff history.

However the Cardinals lost to the Saints in the divisional round of the playoffs, knocking the team out of another shot at back to back Super Bowls.

Now with Kurt Warner out of the playoff picture it’s time to move into his decision to either retire or come back in 2010 to finish out his contract.

With Matt Leinart still on the roster and Warner being battle tested at the age of 38 some question if he will comeback and that last week Warner hinted that he might retire this off season.

Conclusion: As I’ve been writing this article I’ve gotten to see the two greatest stories in NFL history in my opinion. Favre being drafted and traded to the Packers where he was the third string QB turned hall of famer. Warner went from being an undrafted free agent signie with the Packers to stacking shelves for $5.50 an hour at Hy-Vee before turning into a Super Bowl and NFL MVP quarterback with the Rams and later the Cardinals.

Both of these two quarterbacks are going to be hall of famers but for now both still remain in the game, Favre still fighting for another shot at the Super Bowl.

So what’s the answer to the question at hand? Who has had the better NFL career? Brett Favre or Kurt Warner?

For me it has to be Brett Favre. The guy has broken all major quarterback records and is still playing at an extremely high level at the age of 40. Jerry Rice retired at 41. Will Favre give it another shot? Well I’m betting that will depend on if he’s lifting the Lombardi trophy on February 7th.

To you, who has had the better NFL career? You decide.

You can follow Lars at Twitter http://twitter.com/larshanson