QB Matt Hasselbeck Gets Sacked by Seattle Bush-haters!
He says he was “shocked at how mean they were!”
Seattle Seahawks fullback Mack Strong, left, and quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, right, present President Bush with a football jersey during a fundraiser for Rep. Dave Reichert and the Washington State Republican Party on Monday, Aug. 27, 2007, in Bellevue, Wash. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Seattle Seahawk QB Matt Hasselbeck got a taste of how nasty and mean the local liberals can get after he posed in a photo with President Bush last week at a fundraiser.
Seattle PI has the story:
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.”
Matt Hasselbeck may have been surprised.
The rest of us… not so much.
Dan Riehl– “Seahawk’s fans leave droppings.”
