Harald Hasselbach (22 September 1967 – 23 November 2023) was a Dutch

gridiron football Gridiron football,"Gridiron football"
''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Ret ...

player who was a

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...

in the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL) and

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). He played seven seasons in the NFL for the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

from 1994 to 2000, winning two

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

s, including a

start Start can refer to multiple topics: *Takeoff, the phase of flight where an aircraft transitions from moving along the ground to flying through the air * Starting lineup in sports *Standing start, and rolling start, in an auto race Acronyms *St ...

in Super Bowl XXXIII. Previously, he played four seasons for the Calgary Stampeders of the CFL, winning the 80th Grey Cup in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

. 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 ...

for the

Washington Huskies The Washington Huskies are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Washington, located in Seattle. The school competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Pac- ...

after attending high school near Vancouver. During his youth, he played a variety of sports while his family lived on four different continents. After retiring as a player, he became a high school football coach. He is the only Dutch player to have become a

Super Bowl champion The Super Bowl is the annual American football game that determines the champion of the National Football League (NFL). The game culminates a season that begins in the previous calendar year, and is the conclusion of the NFL playoffs. The winn ...

Early life

Hasselbach was born in Amsterdam on 22 September 1967, to a Dutch father and a Surinamese mother. His father was an agricultural engineer and the family moved frequently; Hasselbach grew up in the Netherlands, Indonesia, Kenya, and Canada. He attended high school in Canada at South Delta Secondary School in

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also re ...

in Metro Vancouver. During his youth he practiced various sports, ranging from

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

, to swimming and soccer.

Career

Playing five years of college football at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

and backing up Dennis Brown and Steve Emtman, he only appeared in four plays, including a tackle of

Emmitt Smith Emmitt James Smith III (born May 15, 1969) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons, primarily with the Dallas Cowboys. Among other accolades, he is the lea ...

. He talked the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

out of drafting him in the

1990 NFL draft The 1990 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 22–23, 1990, at the Marriott Marq ...

because he had already signed with the Calgary Stampeders. He then went on to play four seasons in the CFL (two as an all-star). At Calgary,

defensive line In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

coach Tom Higgins helped mold his talent before he engaged in a 14-team bidding war for his services, deciding to sign with the

. From

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

through

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, Hasselbach played for the Broncos, where he tallied 154 tackles, 29 regular season starts and a start in Super Bowl XXXIII. He had 17.5 NFL-career

quarterback sack In gridiron football, a sack occurs when the quarterback (or another offensive player acting as a passer) is tackled behind the line of scrimmage before throwing a forward pass, when the quarterback is tackled behind the line of scrimmage in th ...

s and four forced

fumble A fumble in gridiron football occurs when a player who has possession and control of the ball loses it before being downed (tackled), scoring, or going out of bounds. By rule, it is any act other than passing, kicking, punting, or successful ...

s. He never missed a game (regular or playoff) in his seven-year tenure (121 games) in Denver. This total included nine NFL playoff games and starts in all three playoff games when Denver repeated as

Super Bowl champions The Super Bowl is the annual American football game that determines the champion of the National Football League (NFL). The game culminates a season that begins in the previous calendar year, and is the conclusion of the NFL playoffs. The winner ...

in Super Bowl XXXIII, where he recorded two tackles against

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. He is one of at least ten players to have won a

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

and a Super Bowl. After his career he served as coach at a local high school. In 2016, he was inducted into the British Columbia Football Hall of Fame. He was a

coach at Regis Jesuit High School at the time of his death.

Personal life

Hasselbach's older brother Ernst-Paul (1965–2008) was a television presenter. Hasselbach had a wife and four children. Hasselbach and his son Terran, who played college football for

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 ...

, were in a near-fatal car accident when Terran was a high school freshman. Hasselbach complained of memory and concentration loss in the years before his death. He was diagnosed with cancer in mid-2023. He died of a

mucinous adenocarcinoma A mucinous neoplasm (also called colloid neoplasm) is an abnormal and excessive growth of tissue (neoplasia) with associated mucin (a fluid that sometimes resembles thyroid colloid). It arises from epithelial cells that line certain internal organs ...

on 23 November 2023, at age 56. At the time of his death he was the only Dutch player to have ever won a

References

External links

NFL career highlights
on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hasselbach, Harald 1967 births 2023 deaths American football defensive linemen Calgary Stampeders players Canadian football defensive linemen Coaches of American football Denver Broncos players Dutch players of American football Dutch players of Canadian football Dutch sportspeople of Surinamese descent Sportspeople from Amsterdam Washington Huskies football players