RENTON — Pete Carroll talks to Russell Wilson daily, about almost anything.
Then again, that’s inherent to the nature of any productive relationship between a quarterback and head coach, eh?
But has Carroll ever talked to the Seattle Seahawks’ two-time Super Bowl quarterback, the frequent White House guest, movie cameo star, boyfriend of music star Ciara and the most-recent Rolling Stone cover boy about…
“About the picture?” Carroll said with a grin Thursday.
Wednesday, Rolling Stone released its long, news-making cover story on the 26-year-old Wilson that included a beefcake-y photo of the quarterback sprawled on a couch. He was wearing a tank-top, white undershirt with an arm staged over his head. His coach obviously got a kick out of that.
Wilson absolutely is getting a kick out of all his life’s become.
He recently signed his $87.6 million contract extension through the 2019 season. He got $31.7 million guaranteed at signing. He welcomed $20 million of that into his bank account this month. He’s guaranteed more than $61 million in all.
He’s seemingly been at the White House as often as Barack Obama in the past couple offseasons. After many practices this month he’s greeted his singer/songwriter/actress girlfriend Ciara and her young son, prompting paparazzi-like photos of them together on the field that have sent the internet buzzing.
Speaking of…
The Rolling Stone article is making national waves for Wilson saying in it he believes “Recovery Water,” a creation of “nanobubbles” from Tacoma’s Reliant Beverage Company — a venture in which he is an investor — preemptively prevented him from getting a head injury in January’s NFC championship game. That was from a vicious, blindside hit in the open field by Green Bay’s Clay Matthews.
“I didn’t have a concussion. I guess it was perceived wrong, but, no, I did not have a concussion,” Wilson said following Thursday’s practice. “I was saying that I’d been consistently drinking the water, for a month, month and a half, five to seven times a day. And I was like, ‘Man, maybe this stuff is helping me out.’
“It’s one of those things I truly do believe it helps with recovery. It’s one of those things, you know, the science behind it and all of that help they are trying to do. … I’ve been drinking it. Several other players on our team drink it. Kam Chancellor drinks it all the time. Russell Okung does too.”
Wilson first got connected with the Tacoma group that started “Recovery Water” last year. He hosted some Reliant members at a Seahawks home game.
“I started drinking the water about a month before the playoffs … kind of consistently drinking it, five, seven times a day. They were telling me that it’s great for recovery, so I started drinking it,” Wilson said. “And I’ve loved it ever since. I’ve got tons of cases in my house. And there are other guys on the team that drink it, for sure. … So it’s been a good thing.”
Chancellor played Super Bowl XLIX on Feb. 1 two days after he tore the medial collateral ligament in his knee. He hasn’t needed surgery since for that. Chancellor said in May this was the first offseason of his six in the NFL that he didn’t need a surgery.
His holdout from the Seahawks was in its 28th day on Thursday, by the way. And Carroll said the team is moving, trying to settle Saturday night in the third exhibition game at San Diego a battle between DeShawn Shead and Dion Bailey to start as Chancellor’s fill-in at strong safety.
“The opener’s coming,” Carroll said. “We have to get our guys ready to play.”
Can Wilson possibly be ready, with all he’s doing and has done since he won the Super Bowl in February 2014?
He has also recently made a cameo appearance in the movie “Entourage,” hosted the Nickelodeon “Kids’ Choice Awards” national-television show and made his second annual one-day stop at Texas Rangers baseball spring training in Arizona, to take batting practice and field ground balls at his old second-base position.
Is all that in any danger of getting him away mentally from his job that brought him all this fortune, fame and fun in the first place?
Carroll says he talks often with Wilson about managing it all and keeping him grounded to team headquarters focused on his main task of leading the Seahawks while as the franchise’s smiling face. Carroll says Wilson has proven he can compartmentalize it all.
“We do talk a lot, about what’s going on, what’s coming. Just staying in connection with all that he’s going through. It’s a lot,” Carroll said. “He has tremendous responsibility and he handles it beautifully. We try to just stay on topic.
“I don’t want him to be too far away from all of the things that we communicate on that keeps us close to football. He doesn’t let that happen. But I’m on top of that.”
In fact, the coach says Wilson is more dialed-in than any of the other 89 Seahawks this preseason.
“Like he should be, he’s the furthest down the road in understanding what we’re doing. His conceptual understanding of what we’re doing is at an all-time high,” Carroll said. “And there’s still room to grow. But he’s just really on it.”
Asked if he feared he may be overexposed or becoming “bigger” than he was, Wilson says his priorities remain in order and intact.
“Make the main thing the main thing,” he said. “First of all is my faith. And then my family, and then football,” he said. “All the rest comes with it, which is great. That’s not a bad thing.
“In terms of the Rolling Stone thing, everything else involved, the White House, and all that, it’s a blessing. I don’t look at it as a bad thing. I’m truly grateful to be surrounded by so many great players on my team, so many great people just in my life, just in general…
“And I’ve always been better busy. I like more on my plate. Keeps me zoned in. Keeps me focused. Keeps me organized. So I don’t think it’s a bad thing, at all.”
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