Detroit Lions QB Matt Cassel undeterred by earthquakes, fire

June 10--When the call finally came, Matt Cassel wasn't ready for it. Nowhere near ready.

In fact, even as Cassel begins his 14th NFL season competing for the Lions' backup quarterback job, he still sounds like he thought it was a joke.

"Hey, this is coach Belichick," said the voice on the other end of Cassel's cell phone.

"I said, 'Yeah, right. You're messing with me,' " Cassel said. "He goes, 'No, this is coach Belichick. We're going to take you next.' "

It was the second and final day of the 2005 NFL draft. And Bill Belichick, who had just led the New England Patriots to a 14-2 season and a Super Bowl championship, was calling.

Cassel was at his agent's office, just hoping to get an offer as an undrafted free agent. Despite being a top high school recruit, he spent five years at USC, threw 33 passes and never started a game. He barely had any film.

The Patriots hadn't bothered to work him out. There was no draft party. It was just Cassel and his future wife, Lauren, at agent David Dunn's office when the seventh round started.

Cassel ran to find Lauren, who was watching the draft on TV in another room. The 230th overall pick was coming up. He whispered to her.

"I said, 'Hey, watch the screen,' " Cassel said. "She goes, 'You haven't come up yet.' I said, 'No, watch the screen.' Ding! Ding! Ding! My name came up on the screen. It was a pretty special moment.

"The funny thing is the announcers on the screen, they had no idea what to say. They're like, 'Uhhh, Matt Cassel. He's not even on our radar.' "

Belichick and the NFL came calling because of Cassel's outstanding pro-day performance. But before that, Cassel grew up in the Los Angeles suburb of Northridge not only on the radar, but at the epicenter of the sports world since he was 12 years old.

He was still just 11 at 4:30 a.m. on Jan. 17, 1994, when a 6.7-magnitude earthquake hit Northridge and devastated greater Los Angeles. Cassel and his 13-year-old brother, Jack, were asleep in their home's family room when water from their inground pool came splashing in through glass doors. Their father, Greg, ran through the house screaming and yelling to make sure everyone was OK.

"When we got outside we started to realize what had really taken place," Cassel said. "Chimneys around our neighborhood were (falling) off. And then all of the sudden the aftershocks started."

The Cassels' home was condemned and they spent the next four months living in hotels. Then August rolled around. Major League Baseball players went on strike Aug. 12 and 10 days later, Cassel's Northridge team made it to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.

The "Earthquake Kids" became the darlings of the summer. Even though they lost to Venezuela in the title game, they were instant celebrities. They came home to a parade and met Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan. They were guests on NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

"We were just having a lot of fun and it took our minds off a lot of the chaos as they were rebuilding Northridge," Cassel said. "It was a pretty special time also because the city rallied around us as we started to go further and further."

Cassel continued playing baseball at Chatsworth High, where led the team to the L.A. City title at Dodger Stadium. But he truly shined as a pro-style pocket passer for the football team, which he led to the L.A. City title at the Coliseum as a junior in 1998.

He became a winner and a leader at Chatsworth. His coach, Bill Coan, remembered Cassel helping him open the weight room at 6 a.m. and staying after practice to run an extra 10 plays with the offense.

Cassel was an excellent student. Coan said he was charming, funny, outgoing and had good relationship with teachers. Coan trusted him so much, he allowed him to audible.

Maybe it wasn't a surprise, since Cassel came from impressive stock. He great grandfather, R.G. Cassel, was a Texas Ranger and his grandfather, Joe Cassel, won the Distinguished Flying Cross as a B-17 bomber pilot in World War II.

Paul Hackett recruited Cassel to play at USC and he redshirted as a freshman in 2000. USC fired Hackett in November and hired Pete Carroll the next month. Cassel was stuck on the depth chart behind Carson Palmer, his roommate and Heisman Trophy winner. Then he was stuck behind Matt Leinart, another Heisman winner.

Cassel still did what he could for the Trojans. When injuries hit in 2003, he played tight end and special teams. After that season, Cassel needed a break from football.

"There was a little bit of frustration that had set in," Cassel said, "and I said, 'You know what? I always loved baseball.' "

Cassel skipped spring football practice and played baseball for Mike Gillespie. He was a 6-foot-5 reliever with a good slider and posted a 9.35 ERA in 8 2/3 innings. That was good enough for the Oakland A's, who drafted him in the 36th round in 2004. But Cassel had one year of football eligibility left.

"I thought about it," he said of signing with the A's. "I was two months away from just finishing up my degree and all that. I figured I'd go finish where I started going to USC. I went there to play quarterback.

"And that's when I went to coach Carroll and said, 'Look, I know I can play a different position, but I want to finish how I started.' So that year I came back in."

But not before Carroll sent him a message.

"They put me fifth on the depth chart," Cassel said with a chuckle, "because I didn't participate in spring ball. I worked my way back up to be the two."

Cassel attempted all of 14 passes his senior season. His plan was simple. Maybe he could play in NFL Europe or latch onto an NFL practice squad as an undrafted free agent.

Of course, it turned out to be much more than that. When he got to New England, he met Lions coach Matt Patricia, who ran the Patriots' scout team as an offensive assistant.

"I think the thing about Matt as a young player that people underestimated, and we did defensively definitely, is he's very athletic," Patricia said. "You know, he was much faster than what you thought at the time as a young guy. Extremely strong arm, you know, like everything's like a fastball."

Patricia was also impressed with Cassel's energy and personality. "Just a guy that can walk in a room and make everyone smile, go at ease," he said. "Great teammate from that standpoint."

After four full seasons as Tom Brady's backup, Cassel was thrust back into the spotlight when Brady tore his anterior cruciate ligament in the first quarter of the 2008 season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs. Cassel took over and led the Patriots to a 17-10 win.

When Cassel was asked to do a press conference after the game, he was so lost that he didn't know where to go and wore a Nike cap. The NFL fined Cassel because it had an endorsement deal with Reebok. Cassel convincingly pleaded his ignorance and had the fine rescinded.

The next week, he started against Brett Favre's New York Jets at the Meadowlands. It had been nine years since Cassel last started a game at quarterback -- in high school.

"There was a lot of stress leading up to that start," he said. "Even throughout the course of that year, I had to turn off the television because they kept mentioning everything."

Cassel led the Patriots to an 11-5 record that year, though they missed the playoffs. He threw for 3,693 yards, 21 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. In December, Cassel's father died suddenly at age 57. Cassel attended the funeral, returned to practice, threw four touchdown passes and beat the Oakland Raiders, 49-26, that week.

The Patriots franchised Cassel in February 2009, then traded him to the Chiefs. He was reunited with former Patriots personnel chief Scott Pioli and signed a $62.7-million contract in July.

But it never worked out. Todd Haley was a rookie coach. Offensive coordinator Chan Gailey was fired after the third exhibition. Cassel made the Pro Bowl with Charlie Weis as his coordinator in 2010. Then came the NFL lockout in 2011 and the loss of Jamaal Charles in a 48-3 rout by the Lions in Week 2. The Chiefs finished 7-9.

In January 2012, Cassel was at his home in suburban Kansas City around 9 p.m. when Lauren saw a neighbor's house on fire. Cassel ran over and pounded on their door.

"The funny part is they originally didn't come down because they thought I was someone trying to break into the house," Cassel said. "But finally, I was about to kick down the door, they started to run down. They saw me and came out the front door because the fire alarm was starting to go off."

The family, who had four children, was saved. They called Cassel a hero.

"It had nothing to do with me saving them," he said. "I'm sure the fire alarm would have got them out."

Nine months later, the Chiefs started 1-3 and some fans at Arrowhead Stadium cheered when Cassel suffered a concussion. Cassel said nothing then and there still isn't a trace of anger about the incident.

"Do I agree with it? No, absolutely not," he said. "But at the end of the day, it's their right, they pay for the ticket. This is an entertainment business and they're going to come out, they're going to cheer, they're going to boo, they're going to yell, they're going to do what they're going to do. And that's part of what we always preach in this industry: You've got to be mentally tough and you can't let it get to you."

Cassel was benched later that October, then released in 2013. He signed with the Minnesota Vikings and took over for an injured Christian Ponder early in the season. He won the starting job in 2014, but broke his foot early in September and missed the rest of the season.

He had stints with Buffalo, Dallas and Tennessee the next three years and now he's reunited with Patricia. He's 36 and a backup again, playing behind an entrenched star. Just trying to learn the new offense and be a good teammate once again.

"I've played in a lot of different roles through the course of my career and I've been a starter for a lot of those years and the mentality can never change," he said. "Even if you're in a backup role, you've always got to prepare yourself. The hardest part sometimes is when you don't get the reps and you continue to push yourself to learn and understand what's really going on."

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