Former Seahawk Matt Hasselbeck “Shocked” by Belichick's Hall of Fame Snub (Exclusive)
With the Seattle Seahawks heading to their fourth Super Bowl appearance on February 8, it’s important to remember that the quarterback to get the franchise to its very first shot at a Super Bowl championship in 2006 was three-time Pro Bowler Matt Hasselbeck. A showman on the field during his NFL career, which lasted almost two decades, Hasselbeck has a unique knowledge of the sport, which is why I was thrilled by the opportunity to speak with him.
While we talked about a few things during our conversation, in light of the recent news that former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick will not be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, I couldn’t help but ask Hasselbeck about the apparent snub. Hasselbeck, like many, was “shocked” and offered his bold take on the situation.
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Matt Hasselbeck:
I was shocked. I was shocked, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he [Belichick] just said, “No thank you. I’m good. I’ll start my own Hall of Fame.” Because he is a student of the game. And he’s kind of got the cache and the power, like he could do that, I think. Maybe he’s like fine with it. He doesn’t care. I think everybody was surprised.
It sort of reminds me of, you know, at the Combine, they measure your hands for quarterbacks, and Joe Burrow’s hands were the smallest that they ever measured. So maybe that’s something you should stop caring about, you know. The left tackle for the Patriots, Will Campbell, first-round draft pick who’s had a great year this year blocking for Drake Maye, they measured his arms at the Combine, and they were the shortest of anybody that has been drafted in the first round or something like that. So, maybe we’re measuring the wrong thing, you know. We measure all these things that don’t matter.
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Matt Hasselbeck:
Whatever metrics that they’re measuring to decide who gets into the Hall of Fame, it’s clearly not as clean as just lowering your cholesterol. It’s all just a bunch of hogwash, really, that doesn’t equal getting the votes right.
Why have a Hall of Fame if he’s [Belichick] not in it?