Matt Hasselbeck & Mack Strong = quality individuals

[cmh6476 1,023]

Go 2 Guy: Seahawks duo blitzed by Bush backlash

 

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Last updated 12:07 a.m. PT

 

By JIM MOORE

P-I COLUMNIST

 

KIRKLAND -- Are you still fans of Matt Hasselbeck and Mack Strong after they visited President Bush last week in Bellevue? Or have their political leanings turned you against them?

 

The Seahawks quarterback and fullback gave the 43rd president a No. 43 jersey with his name on it at a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser for Rep. Dave Reichert at the Hyatt.

 

At the time, Hasselbeck called it a thrill and said it was a win-win, this opportunity to meet the president and get out of a team meeting.

 

But as soon as he saw the picture of the two players with Bush, Gary Wright, the team's vice president of administration, said he was concerned about negative reaction.

 

Maybe in really red Republican states, it would not have been a big deal. But Washington is a blue state, and deep, deep Democratic blue in King County. So objections were raised, and Hasselbeck heard them and read them. He got nasty voice mails, e-mails and text messages.

 

"I had no idea," Hasselbeck said.

 

One guy told him: "I hate you, I'll never wear your jersey, I'll never like the Seahawks again."

 

"Huh?" Hasselbeck thought. "Seriously?"

 

"Politics can be very mean and dirty," he said. "The things politicians say about each other, and what activists say, I had a brief glimpse of that for a couple of days.

 

"If I ever had any questions about whether I wanted to run for office, I now know the answer -- I don't."

 

As a quarterback, he's used to getting booed. "But this was a whole new level," he said. "I was very surprised how mean (they were)."

 

As evidence were these responses to Angelo Bruscas' blog posting on seattlepi.com:

 

"How dare Hasselbeck declare Bush an honorary Seahawk," wrote one. "Who is Matt speaking for? Bush is no Seahawk. He is the worst president of my lifetime, and I'm almost 60. Shame on you, Matt."

 

"To learn that two of the most popular Seahawks are strong (Bush) supporters ruins the season for me and my family," wrote another.

 

And Timothy P. wrote: "Just goes to show you that being a great athlete doesn't make you smart."

 

Among the right-wing rebuttals: "Amen! It's about time that someone broke through the liberal haze in this state. I don't know about anyone else, but the Seahawks gained another fan and ticket buyer."

 

And this: "He's the president of the United States. You liberals are the nastiest, most hateful people I know. I'm ashamed of Seattle."

 

At my house, the Go 2 Wife was stunned, and it sounds like coach Mike Holmgren got the same reaction from his wife, too.

 

"I can't really tell you what she said," Holmgren said.

 

Kathy Holmgren did tell her husband: "I'm glad they didn't ask you." If they had, he would not have gone, no doubt because of the wrath he would have faced at home.

 

"She's a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat," Holmgren said.

 

Holmgren has been to the White House on three occasions.

 

"If you get a chance to meet the president of the United States, it's probably special," Holmgren said, and it was to him.

 

So how did this Bellevue visit occur? Strong's mom used to work for former President George H.W. Bush and called Sandy Gregory, the team's director of community outreach, to let her know that W. was coming to town. She gave Gregory a person to call at the White House, and he asked Gregory to invite Strong and Hasselbeck. The jersey presentation was the White House's idea.

 

Though the Seahawks invited their players, they did not want to be associated in any other way with the fundraising event.

 

"Our philosophy has always been, don't mix these things (politics and sports)," Wright said. "We try to be neutral. With individual players and their preferences, it's up to them."

 

But when asked if the jersey presentation made it look like it was connected to the team, Wright said he could see how someone would conclude as much.

 

When told that Hasselbeck lost some fans, Holmgren said: "That's too bad. ... Fans should keep these two things separate."

 

Added Hasselbeck: "I don't understand. This is America. We're not going to agree on everything."

 

Strong doesn't get it either, saying: "Any time you have a world leader come to your city, you should welcome him whether you like the person or not. That was the right thing to do."

 

Besides, Strong wonders, "Why would people care about what we do as far as going to see the president and giving him a Seahawks jersey?"

 

Strong and Hasselbeck said they would have welcomed a Democratic president, too, and noted that they once visited Gov. Christine Gregoire in Olympia and gave her an autographed football. When he played in Green Bay, Hasselbeck also met former Vice President Al Gore.

 

Hasselbeck voted twice for Bush but said he's not necessarily a staunch Republican, and Strong admitted to "definitely leaning on the side of conservative views on a lot of things."

 

Asked how he felt about the Bush presidency, Hasselbeck said: "I caused such a ruckus holding up a jersey. I'm not educated enough to have a public statement about that. People want to hear educated opinions."

 

Added Strong: "He's had a rough presidency. He's had to make a lot of hard decisions. You're not going to please everybody."

 

Which is exactly what Strong and Hasselbeck have found out.

 

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/moore/330476_moore06.html

 

[hoytdwow 202]

Over-rated

[Sho Nuff 720]

"To learn that two of the most popular Seahawks are strong (Bush) supporters ruins the season for me and my family," wrote another.

 

One guy told him: "I hate you, I'll never wear your jersey, I'll never like the Seahawks again."

 

 

Ruins the season? So if they go undefeated and win the Super Bowl, this guy's season was ruined because they gave Bush a seahawks jersey?

And the 2nd guy will never like the team again because of that?

 

I don't care if Favre open mouth kisses Hillary, its not going to ruin my season or make me dislike the Packers. Though, I will hurl.

[Voltaire 5,288]

Fock, I have Michael Vick on my dynasty league team. I have TO on another. They're way, way worse scum than Matt Hasslebeck who mearly has an opinion I strongly disagree with. George W Bush is the most divisive person in the country. He's killled and maimed thousands of Americans in a retarded war, been a huge embarassment and destroyed the national budget along the way. But this is America, people have a right to support him.

[cmh6476 1,023]

Fock, I have Michael Vick on my dynasty league team. I have TO on another. They're way, way worse scum than Matt Hasslebeck who mearly has an opinion I strongly disagree with. George W Bush is the most divisive person in the country. He's killled and maimed thousands of Americans in a retarded war, been a huge embarassment and destroyed the national budget along the way. But this is America, people have a right to support him.

It saddens me that you would label this war "retarded"

 

That's fine if you don't like killing, nobody does. I was somewhere the other day, where a ladies family was from Iraq and they were Christians. They couldn't even go out in the streets, and would stay in the house for months at a time for fear of their life. If someone saw them wearing a cross, they would be murdered on the spot.

 

Maybe you don't think we should be big brother and police the world, but that just ain't right. I don't care who you are.

 

 

[Voltaire 5,288]

If we go around invading every third world sh*thole with a tin can despot, we'll wear ourselves out.

 

There's no shortage of desperate situations in the world. But if you show some prudence, you can actually accomplish a lot and not get the indigent population to hate your guts. At least Iraq was stable before we entered, mass tribal warfare wasn't going on before got there and focked it all up. It's not like it wasn't completly obvious what would happen before we even went in there. I predicted the whole focking mess right here in this forum with damn near 100% accuracy. But it's not just me. There's a reason that Smart Bush stopped the 1991 war when he did. He saw this exact situation unfolding if he sacked Saddam. It was so focking obvious what would happen.

 

It's hard enough nation building in a stable country. The Retard's advisors knew that when he was a candidate and had him say that. But it's impossible in one that's in the middle of a civil war. Just a waste of money, time and lives.

 

I'd rather, honestly we'd have went to Liberia, at least we have a history and a close relationship with that country and our presense would have actually done some good and we'd have been welcomed. Darfur the same. Kosovo was the right thing to do. We stopped the genocide and lost a grand total of zero soldiers. Should have gone to Rwanda too IMO.

 

Instead we invade/occupy a stable country country with a contained dictator and whack religious nuts. P*ss off all parties and the place is now full of ingrateful assh0les who shelter insurgents from their own clans and cheer, rejoice and celebrate whenever we die protecting them from other clans. Dumb dumb dumb.

[gocolts 300]

At least Iraq was stable before we entered

What's that supposed to be, some kind of sick joke??????

[Voltaire 5,288]

What's that supposed to be, some kind of sick joke??????

 

Saddam maintained order if nothing else. Sack Saddam and you inherit that job. Smart Bush saw that coming a mile away and wisely chose to leave him in charge. And at least Smart Bush would have had a legit excuse to topple him had he chosen to do so.

 

It was so obvious sacking him was a dumb idea.

 

Since only clueless retards would be dumb enough to do it, when the adults are gone those same clueless retard would be the ones to responsible for planning the operation. Pity the poor soldier responsible for carrying out this fools errand. Glad it's not me.

[gocolts 300]

Saddam maintained order if nothing else. Sack Saddam and you inherit that job. Smart Bush saw that coming a mile away and wisely chose to leave him in charge. And at least Smart Bush would have had a legit excuse to topple him had he chosen to do so.

 

It was so obvious sacking him was a dumb idea.

 

Since only clueless retards would be dumb enough to do it, when the adults are gone those same clueless retard would be the ones to responsible for planning the operation. Pity the poor soldier responsible for carrying out this fools errand. Glad it's not me.

Maybe so. He did maintain order, with standards you or I would disapprove. But to say it was stable is a stretch. How many people did he order the execution of again???? How much did he give suicide bombers' families, 25,000??? How much did he steal from the oil for food program??? I don't think that makes for a stable country.

[davebg 0]

How dare two athletes from a liberal state meet w/the POTUS. Don't they know that the only celebs that are allowed to put their political opinions on display are former(?) drug addicted actors, actresses and musicians?

[BMoney 0]

Matt used to be my neighbor here in GB...hes always been quality...

 

i dont care about fellow fans of my team who cant look past politics when rooting for someone...get a life...

 

 

Iraq....stable.....is it true that Americans truly believe it was that way there?.....

[Riddlen 1]

see, both sides are made up of whiney, moronic sheep. I hate em all.

[Uh-huh 0]

Where were all of you freedom of opinion supporters when the Dixie Chicks nearly got run out of Texas?

[Big Blue 06 195]

If something like this causes you to stop rooting for your favorite team, hate the players, etc, then you have bigger problems than football.

[Rattlesnake 0]

I've always thought that Hasselbeck was a pretty smart guy. He flushed that down the toilet.