On this edition of Hangin' with the Hawks, Michael King talks to legendary former Seahawk Trent Dilfer about depression, Matt Hasselbeck, and how he TURNED DOWN a kiss from Cindy Crawford.
"We're in our green room setting, gettin' ready to go and she goes out before me," Dilfer remembers from his 2001 spot on the Tonight Show, post-Super Bowl. "So she does her segment, then I come out. And she goes to give me a kiss on the cheek. And I stop her and say, 'Cindy, I'm sorry! I can't. I'm married! So I turned down a kiss from Cindy Crawford. [...] And my friends are like are you kidding me???!"
Did Jay Leno offer Dilfer a kiss too?
"Uh he tried, I also turned that one down too," says Difler.
Currently an NFL analyst for ESPN, Dilfer was a Seahawks quarterback from 2001 to 2004. What does Dilfer most remember about his time with the Seattle Seahawks?
"Being embraced by the city. We've talked many times, the family, moving up here? I think the community embraced what our family went through, supported us through it...."
The former quarterback's son Trevin died of heart disease back in 2003. He was five years old.
"That off-season, when Trevin died, [...] I had gotten really heavy, I was depressed," says Dilfer. "As a family, we were depressed. I was clinically depressed. I was seeing a counselor, but I just wasn't taking good care of myself."
It was Matt Hasselbeck who convinced Dilfer to come back to the Seahawks.
"He convinced me by saying, 'We need you. You don't need us, but we need you. We need your presence. We need your leadership. We need you in this locker room,'" Dilfer recounts.
He becomes teary-eyed thinking of his friend Hasselbeck's selflessness.
"This is Matt's big year. Like he's in training camp to become a superstar in the NFL and all he cared about was taking care of his friend."
Usually, guys who are one and two quarterbacks are rivals. Hasselbeck and Dilfer started off that way.
"It didn't start well," Dilfer says.
But in their time together as teammates and rivals, marked by many ups and downs, they continually humbled one another and ultimately grew to appreciate each other.
"One of the greatest things that came from my time in the NFL was my friendship with Matthew," Dilfer says.
Evening is your guide to Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. Watch it weeknights at 7:30 on KING 5 TV or streaming live on KING5.com. Connect with Evening via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or email: eveningtips@king5.com.
