Donald William Hasselbeck (born April 1, 1955) is a former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player, a

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) for the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

Los Angeles Raiders The Los Angeles Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994 before relocating back to Oakland, California, where the team played from its inaugural 1960 season to the 1981 season and then agai ...

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

, and the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

Early life

Born and raised in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, Hasselbeck attended La Salle High School, where he was an all-city selection in both football and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

, where he majored in

Fine Arts In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork ...

. He is currently ranked thirty-sixth on the all-time receptions list at CU.

Professional career

Hasselbeck was selected by the

in the second round of the 1977 NFL Draft, where he played for the first six seasons of his nine-year career. He was traded to the

early in the

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

season; in

Super Bowl XVIII Super Bowl XVIII was an American football game played on January 22, 1984, at Tampa Stadium between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion and defending Super Bowl XVII champion Washington Redskins and the American Football Conference ( ...

, Hasselbeck blocked an extra point attempt by

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. He then played for the

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

and the

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

before retiring; he scored the final touchdown of the Giants' season in a 17–3 NFC Wild Card victory over the defending Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers.

Family

Hasselbeck is married to Mary Beth "Betsy" (Rueve) Hasselbeck. He is the father of former NFL

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Matt Hasselbeck Matthew Michael Hasselbeck (born September 25, 1975) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Boston College and was drafted in the sixth ro ...

, formerly the starter for the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

. Matt played on the Seahawks with

Lofa Tatupu Mosiula Mea'alofa "Lofa" Tatupu (born November 15, 1982) is a former American football linebacker who played six seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He was an assistant linebackers coach with the Seattle Seahawks. He played college ...

, who himself was the son of Don's teammate

Mosi Tatupu Mosiula Faasuka Tatupu (April 26, 1955 – February 23, 2010) was an American professional football player who was a running back for 14 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at the University of Southern Ca ...

. Hasselbeck's second son

Tim Hasselbeck Timothy Thomas Hasselbeck (born April 6, 1979) is an American sports journalist and former American football quarterback who currently works as an analyst for ESPN. He played eight seasons in the NFL with the New York Giants, Washington Redskin ...

was an NFL backup quarterback who currently works for ESPN as a Fantasy Football analyst and is married to

Elisabeth Hasselbeck Elisabeth DelPadre Hasselbeck (; born May 28, 1977) is an American retired television personality and talk show host. Hasselbeck rose to prominence in 2001 as a contestant on the second season of the American version of '' Survivor'', where sh ...

. His third son, Nathanael Nicolas (born 1981), played football at

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

and the

University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medica ...

as a defensive back. Don is the son of John William Hasselbeck and Molly M. (Lang) Hasselbeck.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hasselbeck, Don 1955 births American football tight ends Colorado Buffaloes football players Living people Los Angeles Raiders players Minnesota Vikings players New England Patriots players New York Giants players Players of American football from Cincinnati