In a season filled with heart-pounding victories, Wilson had once again been his best when on the brink of defeat. His statistics in that Nov. 3 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers: five touchdown passes, 378 yards, no interceptions and a cascade of elusive scrambles.
It was Seattle’s ninth game of the season, and his improvisation looked akin to watching Miles Davis in full flight while the opposing defense was playing basic keys. It was impossible not to wonder if this would be the season in which Wilson found the postseason redemption that has eluded him for five years.
It has been that long since Wilson threw the most infamous interception in Super Bowl history: a pass a yard from the goal line against the New England Patriots that denied the Seahawks a repeat as champions. “I am never going to let one play define my career, good or bad,” Wilson said in a recent interview with The New York Times, incanting the trademark mantra he has used since that throw. “I’m going to keep trusting the process, and continue to go for it.” (...)
As he prepares to lead his team in a wild-card playoff game Sunday in Philadelphia against the Eagles (9-7), how should Russell Wilson be regarded?
It seems fitting that he will chase the Super Bowl ghost with an injured team full of question marks. There are ways in which Wilson, in his eighth season in the N.F.L., is still a question mark, still an enigma to those outside his immediate sphere.
The Times followed Wilson and his team for the last nine weeks of the season and saw a riveting quarterback who had to be thrillingly perfect to win this season, and a preprogrammed, hard-to-fathom star who sometimes buckled when least expected.
Which Seahawks team will we see in the postseason? That depends on which Russell Wilson shows up. (...)
To fans in Seattle, Wilson sits firmly on the Mount Rushmore of sports icons. His No. 3 jersey is ubiquitous. His tendency to be friendly while also keeping the world at arm’s length fits in with a cultural vibe known locally as “Seattle nice.”
As stars such as Richard Sherman and Lynch left the team, and as Wilson spread his own narrative on social media, the city’s love affair with its favorite quarterback only intensified.
Social media is arguably the perfect platform for Wilson, allowing thin but glowing glimpses of his life through the mediating remove of technology. There he is, at the local children’s hospital on Facebook Live. On Instagram, getting his hair cornrowed, letting his goofball flag fly and cooing with his family for Christmas.
In April, after signing a record contract — $140 million for four years, with a $65 million signing bonus — he popped up on Twitter in the dead of night, barechested, cuddling next to his music superstar wife, Ciara.
“We got a deal, Seattle,” he said in a Barry White baritone far deeper than his usual voice, which some read as an assertion of his blackness.
“Russell understands how race works in America, that America sees what it wants to see in a black person, and him especially, being a black football player,” said Louis Moore, a professor at Grand Valley State in Michigan who focuses on race and sport, when asked about Wilson’s post. “The beauty of Russell Wilson is he is able to play with the stereotypes.”
However Wilson portrays himself, the online glimpses have given him a dash of personality that even longtime admirers find refreshing.
“It’s good for us to see he’s not some robot,” said a fan, Charlene Lewis, as she walked to Seattle’s downtown stadium.
by Kurt Streeter, NY Times | Read more:
Image: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
It was Seattle’s ninth game of the season, and his improvisation looked akin to watching Miles Davis in full flight while the opposing defense was playing basic keys. It was impossible not to wonder if this would be the season in which Wilson found the postseason redemption that has eluded him for five years.
It has been that long since Wilson threw the most infamous interception in Super Bowl history: a pass a yard from the goal line against the New England Patriots that denied the Seahawks a repeat as champions. “I am never going to let one play define my career, good or bad,” Wilson said in a recent interview with The New York Times, incanting the trademark mantra he has used since that throw. “I’m going to keep trusting the process, and continue to go for it.” (...)
As he prepares to lead his team in a wild-card playoff game Sunday in Philadelphia against the Eagles (9-7), how should Russell Wilson be regarded?It seems fitting that he will chase the Super Bowl ghost with an injured team full of question marks. There are ways in which Wilson, in his eighth season in the N.F.L., is still a question mark, still an enigma to those outside his immediate sphere.
The Times followed Wilson and his team for the last nine weeks of the season and saw a riveting quarterback who had to be thrillingly perfect to win this season, and a preprogrammed, hard-to-fathom star who sometimes buckled when least expected.
Which Seahawks team will we see in the postseason? That depends on which Russell Wilson shows up. (...)
To fans in Seattle, Wilson sits firmly on the Mount Rushmore of sports icons. His No. 3 jersey is ubiquitous. His tendency to be friendly while also keeping the world at arm’s length fits in with a cultural vibe known locally as “Seattle nice.”
As stars such as Richard Sherman and Lynch left the team, and as Wilson spread his own narrative on social media, the city’s love affair with its favorite quarterback only intensified.
Social media is arguably the perfect platform for Wilson, allowing thin but glowing glimpses of his life through the mediating remove of technology. There he is, at the local children’s hospital on Facebook Live. On Instagram, getting his hair cornrowed, letting his goofball flag fly and cooing with his family for Christmas.
In April, after signing a record contract — $140 million for four years, with a $65 million signing bonus — he popped up on Twitter in the dead of night, barechested, cuddling next to his music superstar wife, Ciara.
“We got a deal, Seattle,” he said in a Barry White baritone far deeper than his usual voice, which some read as an assertion of his blackness.
“Russell understands how race works in America, that America sees what it wants to see in a black person, and him especially, being a black football player,” said Louis Moore, a professor at Grand Valley State in Michigan who focuses on race and sport, when asked about Wilson’s post. “The beauty of Russell Wilson is he is able to play with the stereotypes.”
However Wilson portrays himself, the online glimpses have given him a dash of personality that even longtime admirers find refreshing.
“It’s good for us to see he’s not some robot,” said a fan, Charlene Lewis, as she walked to Seattle’s downtown stadium.
by Kurt Streeter, NY Times | Read more:
Image: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
