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Hasselbeck To Play: Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll announced that Matt Hasselbeck will start at quarterback on Saturday against the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints. The announcement came after practice Thursday. Hasselbeck is the only QB ever to lead the Seahawks to an NFC Championship. Many people believe Charlie Whitehurst, who defeated the Rams in the final game of the regular season, to be the better choice. He's younger and more mobile, but Hasselbeck has the experience and poise that Seattle wants, for their playoff run.
Jet Fool: New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan will never be asked to join the U.S. diplomatic corps. Even when he's being complimentary, he's being insulting. This is what he had to say, in response to a question about Peyton Manning:
It’s not just a coach on the field. You give the coaching community too much credit. This guy is one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the game. He is one of the smartest guys. It’s not just a coach dialing up plays, he dials his own plays up. Each play has three options. He comes up and takes option one. Whatever it is. Forget those options, I’m going to go to option four. This is who he is. The guy is tremendous. There is no one else like this guy in the league. Nobody studies like him. I know Brady thinks he does. I think there’s probably a little more help from Belichick with Brady than there is with Peyton Manning.
Now, should the Jets prevail this weekend over Peyton and the Indianapolis Colts, as the sixth seed, who do you suppose they'd play? Of course, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. On their last meeting Brady beat the Jets convincingly 45-3. What would you bet that the Pats are rooting for New York this week, just to run another score up on them?