Most of my anger is not directed at Pete Carroll. If Hasselbeck has proven to be the better quarterback, Carroll's hands are tied. It should be noted that though the sample size is small, Whitehurst has played like one of the worst quarterbacks in football. He has completed a lower percentage of passes than Hasselbeck, for fewer yards per attempt.
By composite stats, the comparison looks pretty stark:
Matt Hasselbeck: 4.9
Charlie Whitehurst: 3.8
Hasselbeck: -9.8% (35th in the NFL)
Whitehurst: -25.8% (41st of 46)
Hasselbeck: -0.02
Whitehurst: -0.15
The difference only amounts to a few points a game, but that's an awful lot contributed or debited by one player. In this case, debited, as we're really just discussing who is more damaging.
Most of my frustration lies in the situation. If Whitehurst can not overtake Hasselbeck after the season Hasselbeck has had, that speaks very poorly of his future. I remember liking that Seattle was aggressively targeting a quarterback, because the team was so desperate for an upgrade, but as it turns out Seattle has probably just overpaid for the latest version of Charlie Frye. Frye was worse, but that's like debating rings of hell. If I were cast down among the wrathful, I doubt I would dream of ascending to among the gluttons.
Most of my frustration lies in the situation, but I do reserve some anger towards Carroll. He helped create this situation after all. Refusing to trade Hasselbeck went a long ways towards Hasselbeck eventually becoming the starter. The Seahawks held a sham competition in the preseason that neither quarterback won, and then appointed Hasselbeck as the starter. Maybe if Whitehurst was a revelation, he could have overtaken Hasselbeck, but he wasn't and he didn't.
Now the Seahawks are deep in the playoffs, facing down a much better opponent and that one small ember of hope I sheltered against the driving rain, that the devil I don't know may be no devil at all, is put out. We are all brutally familiar with Matt Hasselbeck. More familiar I guess than even Pete Carroll. The Seahawks may have a better chance to win behind Hasselbeck than they do behind Whitehurst. I believe it. But there's no future down that path.
Maybe my anger is ultimately not directed at Carroll or Hasslebeck or Whitehurst but age and decline and all those things that I know are wrong but feel powerless to fix. It's tough when life finds its way into one's escape. Injustice is angering. Incompetence is angering. Powerlessness in the face of injustice and incompetence is infuriating. Acceptance of injustice and incompetence and my own powerlessness to stop it is most terrible of all. It is morbid. I would rather run into a cloud of bullets than succumb. I would rather the Seahawks lose by thirty with Whitehurst under center than lose by ten with Hasselbeck under center. But that's just me. Maybe that's why business decisions are made by business men and loving a team is left up to fans.
Give us hope, Matt. Give us hope.