KIRKLAND, Wash. -- Matt Hasselbeck wore a black and a blue necklace, intertwined and laced with titanium, throughout practice. It's the fashion rage among baseball players these days.
"Worked for the Red Sox. Trying it," the Boston-area native and former Boston College Eagles quarterback said Wednesday.
The Seahawks quarterback hopes it works for achy sides, too.
Hasselbeck made it through his first practice since he strained his right oblique muscle in a victory against St. Louis on Oct. 21, though he appeared bothered. He winced. He bent over at the waist. He consulted the team trainer and quarterbacks coach Jim Zorn. And he continually rotated his right, throwing arm in a windmill motion, as if to loosen it.
It was loose enough. One pass was a perfectly lofted, 50-yard throw that reached D.J. Hackett's hands as the receiver sprinted down the sideline.
"Yeah, I think he was conscious of just seeing how it feels, just to see what it felt like to make all the throws. It was good," Zorn said.
Hasselbeck and the Seahawks said he'll be ready to start when skittish Seattle (4-3) comes off its bye and plays at surging Cleveland (4-3) on Sunday.
"I was probably a little bit careful," Hasselbeck said after skipping only a couple of snaps with the first-team offense.
On Monday, he sat out all the drills while Seneca Wallace -- who went 2-2 starting last season while Hasselbeck was out with a sprained knee -- and Charlie Frye worked with the first team.
"Honestly, it's something that was painful," Hasselbeck said before going back into the training room for more treatment and more ice wrapped onto his side. "I've worked hard all last week trying to get better trying to do what I could, and I think the things we did really helped. I feel really good going into this week."
The area of Hasselbeck's injury -- sustained when Rams pass rusher Claude Wroten slammed his helmet and shoulder pad into Hasselbeck's side as he threw an incomplete pass in the second quarter of the Seahawks' most recent game -- gets pulled each time Hasselbeck raises the ball to throw it.
"It has to do with your torso and twisting," said Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, a former college quarterback at USC. "It might affect the quarterback more than any other position on the team, if you stop and think about it.
"It's not gone entirely ... but I expect in a couple of days it probably should be gone. And yes, he has to fight through it."
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