Respect

KIRKLAND – This very well could have been the most embarrassing week of Matt Hasselbeck’s life.

Should have been, if not for an unfortunate injury to Seattle Seahawks teammate Trent Dilfer.

But fate intervened, and now Hasselbeck prepares for a return to Green Bay with the world at his feet.

In addition to 12 of his former Packers teammates, Hasselbeck will be playing in front of countless friends among the 72,500 screaming fans – many of whom used to call out his name on the rare occasions that Brett Favre would struggle. While it looked for awhile as if his return might be as Dilfer’s backup, Hasselbeck is looking forward to making his first return to Lambeau Field as Seattle’s starter.

”It’s going to be special,” he said last week. ”I don’t know what to expect, but I’m really looking forward to it. It’s a game that I wondered what it would be like when I left there.”

One thing that may be readily apparent when Hasselbeck takes the field is that he’s not the same quarterback who left Green Bay two-and-a-half years ago. He’s a bit more (ahem) folically-challenged, much more experienced as a quarterback, and exponentially more respected around the league.

The thing that matters most to Hasselbeck is that he’s respected by his teammates. He was named a team captain during the preseason, which might not sound like much for most quarterbacks but shows just how far he has come since getting booed off the field as a first-year starter in 2001.

”It’s a credit to him and his character,” center Robbie Tobeck said. ”He overcame the boos. He overcame not being the starter anymore. He’s overcome a lot of things. And it’s a credit to him. … When it came time to vote for captains, there was no question he was who I was going to vote for.”

It seems that Hasselbeck is gaining more and more respect each week. Last Sunday, when trying to find open field on a third-down scramble, Hasselbeck saw St. Louis safety Adam Archuleta between himself and the first-down marker. Rather than go into a slide, Hasselbeck bowled Archuleta over and dove for the necessary yardage.

While the coaching staff later chastised him for risking injury, Hasselbeck showed his teammates a toughness they have seen many times during his tenure in Seattle.

”Obviously, teammates look at it with a different perspective than the coaches do,” fullback Mack Strong said of Hasselbeck’s aggressive scrambling. ”Coaches look at it like, this is our starting quarterback and you can’t get him hurt. But as players, you love that kind of stuff. I think it shows the kind of courage and guts that Matt has. He’ll do whatever it takes to win a football game.”

”What makes a great quarterback is the ability to take over a game, and that’s part of it,” Tobeck said. ”That’s him taking over a game. I know he doesn’t look like much, but he packs a punch.”

It may be simple coincidence, but take note of the fact that the Seahawks were trailing 20-10 in the third quarter when Hasselbeck ran through Archuleta before coming back to win 24-23.

”I’m sure everybody remembers when John Elway tried to scramble in the Super Bowl, jumped over somebody and did a helicopter in the air,” Strong said, recalling a first-down run the Denver quarterback made to help beat the Packers in Super Bowl XXXII. ”Stuff like that fires up your team. I think the same thing happens when Matt does something like that, but obviously you can’t have a steady diet of it.”

What Hasselbeck did at the end of last weekend’s game was even more impressive, as he shook off some early struggles to lead Seattle to a comeback win. It was his second fourth-quarter comeback, both of which have come in the past four games dating back to the end of 2002.

Those were the kinds of games Hasselbeck wouldn’t have won earlier in his career, when he tried so hard to prove he was an NFL quarterback that it often left more questions than answers. A new attitude, developed when he watched Dilfer go about his business as the starter through seven weeks last season, has brought better results. And now there aren’t as many people wondering aloud what the heck coach Mike Holmgren saw in Hasselbeck in the first place.

”When given the second chance (as a starter), he really looked at the whole thing a little differently, a little more maturely,” Holmgren said last week. ”And it worked out for him.”

Hasselbeck, who turned 28 last week, summed his short career up most succinctly by saying, ”I’ve learned the hard way.”

In a sense, next Sunday is Hasselbeck’s recital. Once Favre’s backup, he now gets to go back and show some of his closest friends just how far he has come as a starter.

”I have all really good memories from when I was in Green Bay,” Hasselbeck said. ”In fact, I almost owe them something for giving me a chance. Coming out of college, I was one of those guys who very easily could have never gotten an opportunity. So I’m very thankful for the opportunity I was given when I was there.”

One week from today, he’ll be back. And no matter how he performs in Lambeau Field, Hasselbeck will have no reason whatsoever to be embarrassed.