Despite a painful loss in Super Bowl XL, Matt Hasselbeck has no ill will toward the Steelers, who he will face once again this Sunday at Heinz Field.

As he heads to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers, Hasselbeck, Indianapolis' starting quarterback with Andrew Luck out with an injury, talked about the most painful loss of his career, when Pittsburgh beat his Seahawks 21-10 in Super Bowl XL.

“I go back to that Super Bowl; I wanted to really dislike the Steelers," Hasselbeck said. "I think it was just a few days later, we arrived in Hawaii for the Pro Bowl and I come to find out Troy Polamalu is the nicest guy in the world. And I think Alan Faneca’s kids and my kids were playing together for hours on the beach. Travis Kirschke, his wife becomes great friends with my wife. You almost can’t dislike them.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for a lot of the players on the team we wound up losing to so I think you just get over it and realize that football is more about relationships at the end of the day.”

While he has great respect and likes the players that defeated his Seahawks in the Super Bowl, that doesn't mean that the loss didn't hurt. Hasselback didn't play bad-throwing for 273 yards on 26-of-49 passing-Ike Taylor's key interception and Seattle's inability to cash in on several long sustained drives played a key role in the Steelers' victory. It's something that still bothers Hasselback, who was the first quarterback in Seattle history to lead the Seahawks to a Super Bowl.

“We all have good days and we all have bad days,” Hasselbeck said. “All of us, it was the biggest game of our lives and we didn’t play our best football. We didn’t have our best day as a team that day executing and playing well. And that’s what sports are, people who go out and try to do the best that they can.”

“The penalties hurt you in any game, not to ride that. But we had some big gains that got called back. It’s just hard to have a long, sustained drive. We knew that was a team that wasn’t going to give up a ton of big plays but our offense was rolling that year. Having the opportunity to get in the red zone and score touchdowns, that’s what we had done all year. And for whatever reason in that game I had the turnover after the penalty and then we had field goals (missed)."

Hasselback also praised then-Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, who made changes to his defense after Seahawks receiver Darrell Jackson had five catches for 50 yards in the first quarter. Jackson finished with five catches, as Taylor and Pittsburgh's secondary clamped down on Seattle's No.1 receiver.

“(LeBeau made) a tremendous adjustment in that game,” Hasselbeck said. “I think it was pretty genius of him. I had completed the first five (four) passes of that game to Darrell Jackson, who was our flanker/receiver, the receiver to the strong side. We had studied them for two weeks. We really knew what they were going to do, what they were going to be and how we wanted to attack them. And Dick LeBeau rolled the coverage to ‘D-Jack’ early, and just to the strong side. I didn’t think too much of it during the game but looking back now it was a pretty smart move.”

A decade removed from his only Super Bowl appearance, Hasselback, 40, has found the fountain of youth this season. He's 4-0 as a starter this year, completing nearly 65 percent of his passes with seven touchdowns and two interceptions. On Sunday, he'll look to lead Indianapolis to another victory, against a team that will forever be associated with his career.