"Only days after movinghis family cross-country to Nashville, Matt Hasselbeck found a problem he hadn't encountered during his city-living days in Seattle.

He found a handful of small snakes slithering in and around his home, prompting him to seek advice from some of his new teammates with the Titans.

"I started asking some of the guys … 'Hey, what should I do?' " Hasselbeck recalled with a smile. "They would just kind of chuckle and say, 'Welcome to the South, man.' That was it. That was their answer: 'Welcome to the South.' "

It was a small exchange, but the moment offered a glimpse of the new world that awaited the veteran quarterback — on and off the football field.

After a decade in Seattle, Hasselbeck suffered the indignity of having the Seahawks turn their backs on him, figuring that the 36-year-old's best days were behind him.

Seemingly revitalized with the Titans, Hasselbeck is putting up the kinds of numbers he hadn't produced since guiding the Seahawks to a fourth straight division title in 2007. He enters Sunday's game against the Bengals at LP Field with 11 touchdown passes to six interceptions, along with the NFL's 12th-best passer rating.

Maybe just as impressive is how quickly Hasselbeck is adjusting to his new life in, as he calls it, "the deep South.""