While there were several upsets and spectacular plays during the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs last weekend, more attention was paid to Randy Moss and his posterior than anything else.
For those who haven’t seen it, the controversial Minnesota wide receiver pretended to moon the Green Bay crowd after catching a game-clinching touchdown pass against the Packers.
While I personally find nothing wrong with what Moss did, plenty of people found the mock butt-cheek exposure appalling. The reaction caused by Moss’ hilarious celebration took away from the Vikings’ 31-17 defeat of the Packers and also overshadowed the weekend’s other great accomplishments — the most unfortunate oversight being the birth of a leader in Seattle.
With “look-at-me” athletes like Moss bringing negative attention to their teams seemingly every week, Seahawk quarterback Matt Hasselbeck moved in a different direction Saturday after Seattle’s season-ending loss to St. Louis.
The Seahawks’ signal caller has every right to be a bitter man. He’s had to endure impatient fans, underachieving receivers and being relegated to backup duty throughout his four seasons in Seattle. Regardless, he led the Seahawks to their second-consecutive playoff berth this season.
With the Seahawks playing in only the fourth home postseason game in franchise history, Seahawk receivers continued to drop passes against the Rams. Regardless, Hasselbeck managed to persevere, throwing for a team-playoff-record 341 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Despite the team’s struggles, the Seahawks had chance to win. With a little more than two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Seattle found itself down by seven and 64 yards away from the end zone. Hasselbeck drove his team down the field with precision passes and improvisational scrambling.
After 90 action-packed seconds, Seattle reached the Rams’ 5-yard line and faced a fourth-and-four. With Seattle’s season riding on one play, Hasselbeck rolled to his left, looked back to his right and fired a pass to the Seahawks’ most sure-handed receiver, Bobby Engram. When the pass hit Engram’s hands, Qwest Field erupted as 70,000 fans thought the Seahawks had managed to force overtime. As Engram hit the ground and rolled, however, the ball popped loose and Seattle’s playoff run had come to an end on yet another drop.
When he realized the ball wasn’t caught, Hasselbeck, who had fallen to his knees, pounded the turf and let out a thunderous grief-ridden scream. As he ran off the field, it appeared he was in near tears.
During post-game interviews, the emotionally-drained Hasselbeck had every reason to say terrible things about his teammates and Seattle fans. But after all the boos he had
endured, after all the dropped passes and the agony of coming up short in the playoffs once again, he stood up and announced who was behind Seattle’s postseason shortcoming.
Himself.
“Bobby was coming up fast,” Hasselbeck said after the game. “He flashed to me, and I tried to get him the ball. I probably threw it too hard, and I made it a little tougher than it needed to be for him.”
Say what?
You threw for 341 yards, hit your receiver in the hands on the final play of the game, and it’s your fault the team lost?
While most of his teammates failed to improve during a season of disappointment, Hasselbeck grew into the leader every team wants and needs at quarterback. He took the heat for a teammate who couldn’t come through with the game on the line. That’s the kind of guy I want watching my back.
It’s a shame that more attention goes toward an endzone celebration.

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