SEATTLE — There’s snapping, and then there’s clicking, and then there’s flopping.
One is a normal job requirement for a football center. The second is a concerning sound to hear coming from one’s hand during said snapping. The third is an alarming development for a center’s right hand while hoisting his helmet during a postgame celebration.
Landen Hatchett broke his right wrist early in Washington’s 42-25 victory over Illinois last season, but dismissed the pain long enough to finish the game. Still, there were signs that he’d done some damage: the “clicking” when he snapped the ball, and then, while singing “Bow Down to Washington” with his teammates: “I was kind of holding my helmet up, and it kind of flopped on me a little bit. So I was like, OK, something’s a little more messed up.”
Not messed up enough to force him out of the lineup. At least, not right away. Hatchett spent the subsequent bye week snapping with his left hand (with a club-like cast covering his right hand), and felt good enough about that setup to give it a shot in UW’s next game, at Wisconsin. He concealed the injury by waiting until after pregame warmups to apply the club, but after the Huskies’ first offensive series, he said the Badgers switched to a new defensive front and started attacking in ways that compromised his right hand.
“You don’t have anything to grab with,” Hatchett said, “so you’re punching, you’re slipping off. Then you’re relying on your snap hand, which is not ideal.”
He exited in the first quarter of Washington’s eventual 13-10 loss, and didn’t play again the rest of the season.