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In 2010 the Seattle Seahawks became the first team to finish below .500 and still make the playoffs. Coming off three losses in their last four games of the season, the Seattle Seahawks beat the St. Louis Rams in Week 17 to limp into the playoffs at the top of the NFC West.
Under center for the 10th straight season was Matt Hasselbeck. A storied career in Seattle, coming to an end, extended by a first round playoff game hosted at the rowdy CenturyLink Field against the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints.
In what's now known predominantly for the "Beast Quake" run, Hasselbeck, alongside Marshawn Lynch's freakishly impressive plow-through-opponents run, led the Seahawks to a surprising 41-36 victory. Hasselbeck threw for 272 yards, four touchdowns, and walked off the field with his son on his shoulders, in his last game playing in front of the "Twelfth Man" in a Seahawks uniform.
Hasselbeck was selected 187th overall in the 1998 NFL draft by the Green Bay Packers. Two seasons later, Hasselbeck was dealt to the Seattle Seahawks, a move initially questioned, but one that eventually made general manager and head coach Mike Holmgren look like an even bigger genius.
Throughout the next 10 seasons, Hasselbeck led the Seahawks to six postseason appearances, including one as memorable as "Beast Quake." No, I'm not talking about Super Bowl XL. We'll get there.
In Seattle's first playoff game since the 1999 season, Hasselbeck capped off an already memorable 2003 wild card game against the team that traded him. Tied 27-27, heading into overtime, Hasselbeck won the coin toss and announced nine words that still echo through the league when overtime looms:
"We want the ball, and we're going to score."
Two possessions later, Hasselbeck threw an interception into the hands of Packers cornerback Al Harris, who returned it 52 yards for the score, and the win.
It was turnovers that often haunted Hasselbeck, as he finished his career with 153 interceptions to go with his 212 touchdowns and 36,638 passing yards. Two years after Hasselbeck's famous botched on the spot prediction, and a pick-six that suddenly defined his young career, the quarterback led Seattle through two rounds of the playoffs, without turning the ball over, and into the Super Bowl for the first time in Seahawks history.
His retirement, like so many other greats, arrives without a championship ring on his finger. Seattle lost the season's final game to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 21-10. Hasselbeck never returned to the Super Bowl.
This past season, as an Indianapolis Colt, Hasselbeck returned to the headlines, filling in for the injured Andrew Luck. A lacerated kidney kept the Colts franchise quarterback out of action for more than half of the 2015-2016 campaign. Hasselbeck was inserted into a role he had previously prospered in, winning five of his eight relief starts, revisiting his knack for victory before hanging it up. For good.
It's so easy to initially ask, well did he win a Super Bowl? Unfortunately, another player who deserved one, did not. But Hasselbeck did so much more for the game, for Seahawks football. He may not have brought a trophy home, but he restored relevance in a city longing for some. Football in Seattle became a culture again. He undoubtedly paved the path to more success, and for Russell Wilson to finally bring a championship to Seattle.
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