Seahawks Notebook | Out for revenge? QB not sure

KIRKLAND — Matt Hasselbeck doesn't need to play in the Seahawks' exhibition this Saturday at Qwest Field, but he expects to get in the game.

"If they tell me to go in there, then I'll be very excited to do that," said the Seahawks quarterback, who didn't play in the 48-13 exhibition defeat Saturday at Green Bay.

Hasselbeck would like to play in front of the home fans, and he knows coach Mike Holmgren likes to use the third exhibition game of every year to see where the starters are as far as fine-tuning the No. 1 units.

Then, there is the opponent Saturday, the Minnesota Vikings. On Oct. 22 of last year, the Vikings came into Qwest Field and pounded the Seahawks 31-13 to break Seattle's 12-game home winning streak. In that game, the Seahawks also lost Hasselbeck to a strained knee ligament early in the third quarter when Vikings linebacker E.J. Henderson rolled into Hasselbeck's legs.

The injury cost Hasselbeck four games. A few days after the injury, Hasselbeck voiced his displeasure at what he felt was the nature of Henderson's hit. He said it was avoidable, and while the hit wasn't intended to seriously injure Hasselbeck, the Vikings didn't want him to finish the game.

The Vikings and Henderson are back Saturday. Hasselbeck said he doesn't know Henderson and isn't even sure what jersey number he wears.

Asked if he'll say something to Henderson on Saturday about what happened last season, Hasselbeck said he didn't think so.

"Maybe, maybe not. I don't know what I'd say. 'Thanks for ruining my season'?" Hasselbeck said.

He added he doesn't really have an issue with Henderson, but more with the NFL's rule about protecting quarterbacks from serious injury.

"I don't have a problem with a guy leading and hitting me in the ribs with his helmet," Hasselbeck said. "I don't have a problem with a guy even hitting me in the head. I do have a problem with a guy [hitting] late around the quarterback's knees unnecessarily."

Pitching with the pros

The Seahawks, in promoting the Champion Tour's Boeing Classic this week at the TPC at Snoqualmie Ridge, invited two golfers, Jerry Pate and Jim Colbert, to take part in a closest-to-the-pin contest with Seahawks punter Ryan Plackemeier and tight end Marcus Pollard.

After a couple of warm-up shots for all four — during which Plackemeier got closest to the pin topped by a blue 12th Man flag — each man took his best shot. Plackemeier came closest in the competition, his pitching wedge putting one of his shots 4 ½ feet to the left of the flag 115 yards away.

"I beat them on two shots," Plackemeier said of Pate, the 1976 U.S. Open champ, and Colbert, a former Kansas State football player. "If we went and hit a round, I'd put a few out of bounds."

Plackemeier has played golf since he was 5. He played in high school.

Apt description

Hasselbeck affirmed a reporter's description of teammate and fellow quarterback Derek Devine as a "surfer dude with a big arm."

"He's got a bunch of tattoos and the biggest calves on our team," Hasselbeck said. "The dude's got like 3 percent body fat. He's fast."

Devine, a rookie from Marshall, got a few snaps in during the closing minutes of the exhibition game Saturday at Green Bay.

NOTES

• Seahawks legend Steve Largent and fellow Pro Football Hall of Famer Mike Haynes attended the morning practice.

• The Seahawks participated in the NFL's Minority Coaching Fellowship Program during training camp, playing host to two college coaches over the first couple of weeks of camp. Manny Martinez, an assistant from Texas Southern, worked with the offensive line, and Purdue assistant Terrell Williams worked with the defensive line.

• DE Darryl Tapp is tied for the NFL lead in sacks with three in the exhibition season, joining one-time Seahawk Chris Cooper of Arizona and Green Bay DE Cullen Jenkins.

José Miguel Romero: 206-464-2409 or jromero@seattletimes.com