Seahawks Fandamonium: Charlie Whitehurst Sucks…well, duh!

Remember that time when the Seahawks traded for a no-name QB who had never started a game? Remember seeing him in his first start and thinking “who the heck is this loser, why is he on the field and who is allowing this to happen?” Remember when you’d rather get hit in the face with a large metal object instead of watching the Hawks being “lead” by this joke?

Fortunately, Matt Hasselbeck became pretty good and turned out to be a pro-bowl QB that ushered Seattle to it’s one and only Super Bowl appearance. So, thanks to him I learned a couple of very valuable lessons that I think many Hawk fans need to be reminded of: 1) It takes time to develop into a valuable QB. 2) This is extremely painful to watch. 3) It can be worth it.  4) Being hit in the face with large metal objects can lead to long term memory loss. The point is that Whitehurst has not been given a fair shot and we haven’t seen enough to know what kind of QB he is.

First lets look at the most successful QB in the history of the Seattle Seahawks, Hasselbeck, and how much he sucked. In 2001, he got his first start. Actually, he had 12 first starts. Accumulating seven Touchdowns, eight interceptions and a QB rating of 70.9 in the those 12 games. Now, I’m no expert, but I think technically that sucks. Bad decision making, forcing the ball and basically not getting the job done was what we had to look forward to come Sunday. These would be considered rookie mistakes and are generally expected from inexperienced players. Fortunately Matt was given time and eventually figured it out.

Whitehurst, on the other hand, has not been given that chance. He has started two games and won one of them. Did I mention that the game he won was the final and most important game of the regular season? Did he crack under the pressure of leading the team back to the playoffs after a two year absence? No, he got the job done. Did I mention that the game he lost was on the road against the New York Giants who had a great defense? I believe that experts would call this a “difficult” game. When I say “difficult”, I mean if we had a time machine and had picked up the Joe Montana of past glory and zapped him into the future to play for the Hawks that game, we still lose. Leading many Seattle fans to discount having Joe Montana as a QB, and time travel altogether.

Whitehurst didn’t play bad considering it was his first start. He had a touchdown and threw a perfect ball into the end zone to Michael Williams, but Williams dropped it and let it bounce of his hands for an interception. The second interception was a rookie mistake, which can be expected from someone in their first start. These types of mistakes must be forgiven, not forever, but for now.

What’s my point? Newbies suck. All we can do is hope they learn from their mistakes and move forward. When I lost my virginity it took me three times longer to open the condom wrapper than it took me to use the condom once I finally got it on. Rookie mistakes can be frustrating, particularly with your best friend’s sister, but Whitehurst hasn’t been given his chance to get past these rookie mistakes. Maybe Whitehurst doesn’t have what it takes. Maybe he is the suckiest sucker whose ever sucked, but lets give him a chance to show us what he’s got before we decide.  And everyone said…”A-men”.