You may have known this if you covered Xaverian or rooted for the school, but many probably didn’t know that Rob Ninkovich was an assistant coach for the Hawks this season as the team soared to the D1 title.

There was never much fanfare or talk around Ninkovich helping out because he wasn’t there all the time, but helping young players was an opportunity he didn’t want to pass up while enjoying retirement. All it took was phone call from Matt Hasselbeck.

“Matt Hasselbeck actually reached out to me since his son is the starting quarterback there, a very great young man, awesome parents, great grandparents. You can definitely tell the Hasselbeck family is one of the best out there,” Ninkovich told us in an interview during Army-Navy Media Row in Boston on Friday. “Matt just hit me up and said ‘hey man, I’m helping with the offense, we would love for you to come help on defense as much as you can.’ I just went to help a few days a week. I wasn’t full time into that because they already had some of the guys there that were going to be in that position. For me, it was just come in, observe, help out, go through some individual, show the young guys a little bit of technique work and hand placement and footwork.

“It’s fun when you can work with young adults who are eager to be better and want to learn. They want to learn the little tips and nuances of playing the game.”

Ninkovich is enjoying all avenues that are presented to him right now, including his podcast alongside Dan O’Brien ‘The Dan and Ninko Show’ but would he ever want to coach full time?

“This is kind of a transition year for me,” he explained. “Not doing the TV stuff, I had a couple coaching opportunities in the past, but I just wasn’t ready to dive into it. So, looking forward, depending on the opportunity, I’d have to evaluate. My kids are in school…just locally versus having to move away. It’d be tough on the family.”

Ninkovich also shared his views on the belief that coaching is an ’80-100 for work week.’

“It doesn’t have to be,” he said. “Football…as a player, I can tell you first hand, I was very much so a feel, football awareness type of player. Over analyzing stuff and over doing it sometimes can hurt a player. I’m from the see ball, get ball, fast, react…the guy in front of you is trying to stop you from getting to the football. So, however you gotta get around him, however you have to set it up – which is key, setting things up and show certain things – the faster you’re going to be. The Patriots’ style of defense was very, very intense when it came to plays, recognition, patience, adjustments. Which, at times put me in good spots and I loved it and other times I wish I didn’t have to learn so much because it slows you down. You think you stink.

“For me, I would take what I learned from Bill (Belichick), from defense and adjust it how I see it through my lease. I think maybe 60-70 hours would be good, you chop 20 hours you’ll be alright.”

Whether we see him on a sideline with a headset in the future remains to be seen, but it’s clear Ninkovich thoroughly enjoyed his time with Xaverian this season.

After all, who doesn’t like more Super Bowl rings? An old teammate of his did always say the best one was the next one.

“It was a great time, I had a fun time and I’m happy they were able to get the job done in the state championship,” he added.