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Art of the deal Inside look at the negotiations of the Hasselbeck trade
Part 1 of a four-part series By Jon A. Dolezar, CNNSI.com Matt and Sarah Hasselbeck were having the time of their lives in the summer of 2000. A gorgeous church wedding with 280 family members and friends at Our Lady of the Assumption in New Haven, Conn., on June 17 was followed by a 10-day honeymoon on Little Dix Bay in the British Virgin Islands. Upon their return to northeastern Wisconsin, they eagerly awaited Matt's third season in the NFL and watched as construction on their new golf course home in suburban Green Bay progressed. But then the rumblings began during training camp in July. The Hasselbecks were happy in Green Bay, but with a three-time MVP -- and the most durable quarterback in the history of the NFL -- playing ahead of him, Matt Hasselbeck was pretty sure his playing time wouldn't come in Titletown. "I think the first day of training camp was the first I heard about it," Hasselbeck said. "We sat down for media day and that was all anybody wanted to talk about. I knew that was going to be a question that I was going to have to entertain." Entertaining may not be the most appropriate way to describe the uncertainty of hearing your name brought up as trade bait, but Hasselbeck knew his best chance to get his young career started was to be dealt elsewhere.
According to Hasselbeck's agent, Vann McElroy, Seattle and New Orleans both showed interest before the 2000 season. But they backed off when Packers general manager Ron Wolf told them he wanted a first-round pick in return for a player he viewed as a valuable backup and likely future starter in the league. Green Bay instead traded third-string quarterback Aaron Brooks to the Saints before last season for a third-round pick, then watched as Brooks filled in for an injured Jeff Blake and led the Saints to their first playoff win in franchise history. Hasselbeck spent his third season with the Packers behind Favre, holding on field goals and extra points, but a second consecutive successful preseason was enough to hint at his long-term potential. "There were rumors over the past year," Packers director of finance Andrew Brandt said. "But I think as soon as the season ended, then the rumor really heated up about us improving our draft by trading Matt Hasselbeck." Hasselbeck amassed a 114.4 rating in the past two preseasons, but putting up big numbers against second- and third-string defenders isn't going to unseat a three-time league MVP who has started a record 155 consecutive games. "As much as I wanted to play in Green Bay, it was never going to happen because of a guy by the name of Brett Favre," Hasselbeck said. "So I knew that I would have to go somewhere else to play. I've always kind of been looking around the league to see where I would like to play. And obviously Seattle has all the right pieces and I think it's a good opportunity." But Hasselbeck's shot in Seattle almost didn't come to pass. The Packers were minutes away from finalizing a deal with the Miami Dolphins on March 2 before Seahawks head coach and general manager Mike Holmgren swooped in and closed the deal with Green Bay, reuniting him with his former practice squad quarterback.
"I thought we had a deal done," Dolphins vice president of player personnel Rick Spielman said. "That's how good I felt about it. But then the Seahawks came in and [Packers head coach Mike] Sherman did the deal with Holmgren. It's part of the business. You give it your best shot. They felt their deal they had with Seattle was better, so that's their decision." Miami was offering its first-round pick (26th overall) and a swap of second- and third-round picks for a quarterback who has thrown only 29 regular-season passes. "We had gone back and forth [with Miami] several times and I think we were pretty much done," Hasselbeck said. "We talked about numbers that we would be happy with and they basically hit those numbers. I always kind of thought Seattle would be a great situation because I know the coaches and I know the offense. I've heard great things about Seattle, but Miami would've been fine, too." The Dolphins and Packers had preliminary discussions about Hasselbeck after the regular season, and then Spielman and Wolf spoke at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis the week of Feb. 22-26. The start of the new league year was March 2, so no moves could be made before then, but the two teams were laying the groundwork for the deal that almost went down.
The Seahawks and Packers also had entered into informal negotiations with Holmgren speaking with Packers GM-to-be Sherman, who served as Holmgren's offensive coordinator in Seattle in 1999. Scouts for the two franchises casually discussed the trade at college All-Star games and at the Combine to gauge the level of interest in a deal and set an opening point for negotiations. "They [the Packers] knew that they had a surplus at a critical position in the NFL and you start trying to figure out who might be interested in giving you some draft picks for that player," Seahawks senior vice president Mike Reinfeldt said. "So I think we kind of identified our need and they kind of identified the Seahawks as a place that might make sense." Holmgren said the teams were pretty far apart in their initial talks at the Combine, adding that dealing with someone he is so familiar with like Sherman may be tougher than trying to put together a trade with someone else. The Seahawks and Packers spoke March 1, but negotiations got tense and the teams decided to sleep on it and revisit talks the following day. They knew they were close, but there was still work to be done. Spielman spent most of the day March 2 on the phone with Wolf, while Holmgren and Sherman were speaking simultaneously about the Seahawks' interest and what they could offer. "I was hearing back from my agent back and forth," Hasselbeck said. "We really thought the Miami Dolphins were going to be the team. They were the team that showed the most interest, and we had negotiated out a contract with them and had done all that before the trade even took place." Hasselbeck received a call from Brandt that afternoon.
"I was sitting in my family room and I was watching [ESPN's] John Clayton report that Elvis Grbac was likely to go to Seattle, and as he said that the phone rang and Andrew Brandt was on the phone," Hasselbeck said. "He said, 'It's done.' And I was like, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'You've been traded.' I said, 'Wow!' And he said, 'It's not really official, we are waiting for Mike Holmgren to send some papers over.' And I said, 'Mike Holmgren?' And he said, 'Yeah, you are going to Seattle.' I was kind of shocked, because I hadn't heard that Seattle was really that interested. But I think that was just kind of their modus operandi -- they wanted to lay low until they were ready to do the deal." Seattle did, in fact, lay low, increasing its offer to allow Green Bay to move into the top 10 in the draft without losing one of its two first-round picks. Sherman said the Packers and Seahawks spoke daily for about five days before the trade and Green Bay didn't pull the trigger until it had a deal that would significantly improve its team. "It was a culmination of weeks, and months probably, of some discussion," Holmgren said. "The fact that we were able to get Matt, a quality young man and a great quarterback in my opinion, was really the start of something very important for the Seahawks." The Packers liked the thought of netting an extra first-round pick from the Dolphins, but the key to the deal with Seattle was the chance to pick among the top 10 in April's draft, as well as the inclusion of the third-round pick (No. 72 overall), which will give Green Bay five picks among the first 82 selections in the draft. "I think the opportunity to get to 10 is what made the difference in the deal," outgoing Packers general manager Wolf said. "To get up to the top 10 is enormous. ... I think in most drafts that the quality level of player is higher in your top 10 than it is in your top 17. I think history will bear that out." Players that were selected with the 10th overall pick in the past 10 years are: wide receiver Herman Moore, offensive tackle Ray Roberts, running back Jerome Bettis, linebacker Jamir Miller, wide receiver J.J. Stokes, offensive tackle Willie Anderson, guard Chris Naeole, cornerback Duane Starks, cornerback Chris McAlister and wide receiver Travis Taylor. The proposed deal with the Dolphins would have given the Packers the No. 26 pick, an area of the first round at which they've found little success in recent years, with John Michels (No. 27 in 1996) and Antuan Edwards (No. 25 in 1999) the examples of late first-round disappointments for Green Bay. "I believe with the top-10 pick we can really get ourselves a strong blue-chip player, hopefully a Pro Bowl player," Sherman said. "The reason to move up to the 10th pick -- I know it's a risk to let a quarterback go like Hasselbeck -- but the risk is going to hopefully bring reward in that we get an impact player."
In the last deal between the two teams, the Packers acquired running back Ahman Green for cornerback Fred Vinson and a swap of late-round draft picks last offseason. Green went on to combine for 1,734 yards and 13 touchdowns while Vinson blew out his knee in Seattle's June minicamp and missed the entire season. Unlike that trade with his former employer, Holmgren believes all parties will come out looking good on this deal. "Matt was clearly the player we wanted," Holmgren said. "Now, I wasn't sure that we could get that done because I wanted to keep our No. 1 picks. Green Bay did not have to trade him this year. Once we made a decision on who the quarterback we wanted was, then it was a matter of a lot of negotiation. I believe this: It was a win-win situation. Green Bay got a good pick in 10, we got the quarterback we wanted. It was one of those trades that was a good trade."
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