Hasselbecks adjust to newfound fame

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The bottles sit unopened, enough champagne to fuel a half-dozen New Year's Eve toasts. Don't get Tim and Elisabeth Hasselbeck wrong: They appreciate the gesture. It's just that they barely have time to read the labels, let alone sample the contents.

When you've gone from unemployed to holding down the second-most important job in Washington -- or you're the unexpected new co-host of a national talk show -- well, cork-popping tends to get lost in the shuffle.

"It's funny," said Tim, the Washington Redskins' starting quarterback of the moment. "We have people sending us -- really, sending Elisabeth -- bottles of Cristal, saying, 'Hey, congratulations.' And it's like, we haven't celebrated. We don't want this stuff."

Hasselbeck laughed.

"I say that now, and I'll have a locker room full of guys asking for it."

Such is life for the Hasselbecks, the best-known couple with local sports ties since Mia Hamm and Nomar Garciaparra. Over the last two months, they've gone from minor to major fame, from killing time to collecting bubbly.

Tim, an undrafted NFL journeyman, is filling in for the injured Patrick Ramsey as the Redskins' quarterback. Elisabeth, a former "Survivor" contestant, recently beat out 20 other candidates to land a spot on ABC's estrogen-sodden daytime gabfest "The View."

Needless to say, the holidays have been a little hectic for the couple that began dating when they were students at Boston College.

"What's happening in our daily lives is almost a blur," said Elisabeth. "Even good things can be hard to handle sometimes. We've both kind of stepped into roles that in some ways we were ready for, but in a lot of ways we're still adjusting."