"Back when he was a relatively obscure college passer at Alabama State, Tarvaris Jackson had a hot temper he didn't make much of an effort to conceal.

The Seattle Seahawks' anointed successor to longtime quarterback Matt Hasselbeck is a lot mellower now, and that's a good thing. Otherwise, at some point during the previous three seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, Jackson would have reacted to the dismissive treatment he received from then-coach Brad Childress by throwing a Christian Bale-sized tantrum.

"Oh man," Jackson said last Thursday from the Seahawks' training facility, shortly after completing his first official practice with his new team. "If I still had my temper, I would've got kicked off the [Vikings] a long time ago."

Instead, T-Jack kept his cool and engineered an exit on his terms. Following three consecutive offseasons in which he sat atop Minnesota's depth chart, only to be supplanted by veterans Gus Frerotte (three games into the '08 season) and Brett Favre (during each of the following two training camps), Jackson bolted shortly after the lockout ended.

The free agent agreed to a two-year, $8-million contract with the 'Hawks on July 27. Three days later, Seattle coach Pete Carroll surprised reporters by naming Jackson his unequivocal starter.

It's not hard to deduce that the Seahawks are trying to prop up a psyche that took its share of beatings in Minnesota, especially during Favre's melodramatic and volatile two-year run with his former NFC North rivals.

"He has not been in a good situation," Carroll says of Jackson, a second-round draft choice of the Vikings in 2006. "He's been jerked around. We wanted to put him in a stable situation."

Seattle general manager John Schneider was even more blunt: "He's 28 years old, and quite frankly was [expletive] on for four years."

As counterintuitive as it might sound, the Seahawks view Jackson's presence as a stab at stability. Though Hasselbeck spent 10 years in Seattle, most of them as the starter, and performed brilliantly in the 'Hawks' stunning playoff upset of the New Orleans Saints last January, his age (35) and rash of injuries in recent years made him less attractive to Carroll and Schneider as they prepared for their second season.

Two other factors convinced the coach and general manager to pursue Jackson over Hasselbeck, who ended up signing with the Tennessee Titans: The presence of offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, whom Carroll hired after cutting ties with Jeremy Bates last January, and the lockout-induced lack of an offseason program.

Bevell had spent the previous five years as the Vikes' offensive coordinator, and with no opportunity to work with Seahawks players before training camp, Jackson's familiarity with the system made him an appealing option. Backup Charlie Whitehurst, acquired early in the Carroll regime from the San Diego Chargers for a swap of 2010 second-round draft picks and a third-round selection in 2011, clearly hasn't impressed his coach enough to be seen as a viable starter."