When they purchased the house in Norfolk, Mass., 26 years ago, Don and Betsy Hasselbeck marveled at the convenience. Schaefer Stadium, where Don went to work on Sundays, was just a 12-mile drive on the backroads of suburban Boston.
The stadium has changed – Gillette Stadium was built in what used to be the Schaefer Stadium parking lot in 2002 – but the house has stayed the same. And this Sunday, the Hasselbecks will make that drive to watch the New England Patriots play a game against their eldest son.
“It’s going to be wild,” said Betsy Hasselbeck, the mother of Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and the wife of a former Patriots tight end. “Emotions are going to be running quite high. In my wildest dreams, you never could have told me that the kid playing football in the front yard was going to be entertaining people in Gillette Stadium.”
Lots of friends and family from the Boston area are excited about the prospects of a local kid returning to face the Patriots this Sunday, but the 29-year-old quarterback isn’t expecting any kind of homecoming parade.
“There’s so many people that have played professional sports that have come out of that area that I don’t think anybody cares about me,” Matt Hasselbeck said in his typical self-deprecating style on Monday. “It’s just another guy. I don’t think it’s that big a deal.”
Granted, Bostonians have bigger beans to bake this weekend. There’s the Patriots’ NFL-record 19-game winning streak, of course. And there is apparently something about a baseball team playing a pretty important series against a rival from a neighboring state.
So the return of Hasselbeck isn’t exactly front-page news.
“A lot of people around here know Mr. Hasselbeck from his days with the Patriots, so the Hasselbeck name has been around here for a long time,” said Brian Barry, one of Matt’s best friends from the area. “So I think a lot of people will be happy to see him come back. But is it going to be the top story in The Globe? Not really.”
Hasselbeck first moved to the Boston area as a 2-year-old in 1978, then moved to Los Angeles (1983), Minneapolis (1984) and New York (1985) as Don Hasselbeck changed teams. But the Hasselbecks always kept the house in Norfolk.
Following Don Hasselbeck’s retirement from the NFL in 1985, the family was back in Massachusetts for good. Matt Hasselbeck – Matthew to his family – spent two years as a ballboy for the Patriots and eventually became the starting quarterback at Xaverian Brothers High School in Westwood, Mass. During a senior year that saw him lead his school to the state title game, Hasselbeck started getting recruited by colleges all across the country.
His final decision came down to UCLA and Boston College, and Hasselbeck wasn’t ready to start the nomadic cycle again. He went for the stability of staying home for four years, joining Tom Coughlin’s BC program.
Hasselbeck was a high-profile recruit that was supposed to help take BC to the next level.
“Our first day there, he already had someone from the (Boston) Herald or Globe interviewing him,” teammate Charlie Smith said.
But being the big man on campus didn’t move Hasselbeck up the depth chart.
“He wasn’t dealt the best situation at BC,” said Barry, the high school friend who also attended Boston College. “He was probably sixth on a depth chart of four.”
Still, Hasselbeck dreamed of one day playing in the NFL. It was a vision that no one else thought could happen to Hasselbeck.
“It’s funny. We used to sit around in the dorm room, and he’d be watching NFL quarterbacks on TV and critiquing them,” said Smith, a former BC safety who now works at a bank in Cincinnati. “And we’d be like, ‘Matt you’re the third-string quarterback at BC. Why are you critiquing this guy?’
“But you’ve got to hand it to him. He’s always had a quiet confidence to him.”
Since he took part in his last game at BC in 1997, Hasselbeck has not played football in the state where he spent most of his childhood. This will be his first start as Seahawks quarterback in front of the faithful hometown fans.
“I’ve always wanted to go back and play there,” he said. “Unfortunately, now they’re the best team in football.”
The return puts some of Hasselbeck’s friends and family in precarious situations. Don and Betsy Hasselbeck will be watching the game from a suite owned by Reebok, the company that employs Don. The same suite also houses many wives of Patriots players.
Betsy Hasselbeck kind of knows what to expect, having invited the parents of Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning into the box for a game between the Colts and Patriots last season.
“It was uncomfortable at times,” she said. “There might be some of that for us. It’s going to be very unique.”
Barry, Hasselbeck’s boyhood friend, might also have some awkward moments. A longtime Patriots fan, he’s not going to hide his allegiance to the Seahawks on Sunday.
“Blood’s thicker than water,” he said. “I’ve been cheering for the team wherever he’s at, so that takes royalty over the Patriots.”
The Hasselbeck family has seen Matt play live in about a dozen NFL games, but that number would be higher if he was their only child. Another son, Tim, is a backup quarterback with the Washington Redskins, so the parents typically spend Sundays with side-by-side televisions tuned in to DirecTV feeds of both games.
A third son, Nathanael, is a wide receiver at the University of Massachusetts after transferring from BC as a junior. So traveling to every Seahawks game is not a realistic option.
This week, the first-born son will come to them.
“It’s exciting for Don,” said Betsy Hasselbeck, who did travel to the Seahawks-Rams game with her husband over the weekend. “He’s already wound. Not because he’s worried, but because it’s going to take him back in time. It’s going to occupy his mind a lot this week.”
Father, mother, brother and friends are excited about seeing Matt Hasselbeck return to Boston. But the Seahawks’ quarterback is trying to look at his homecoming as a business trip.
“It’s a game against a team that’s won the Super Bowl (two of) the last three years,” Matt Hasselbeck said. “They’re a whole other caliber of team than we are. So this is going to be a chance for us to go in and play a great team and see how we can compete with them.”
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