Russell Okung on running with the bulls

As you no doubt know by now, Russell Okung decided to run with the bulls during his recent vacation in Spain. Well he’s back in Seattle in once piece and practicing with the Seahawks, and after Friday’s practice he explained just why he decided to partake in a rather risky activity during his offseason.

“Originally I just wanted to go to Spain and I’m looking up stuff to do, and all of a sudden I see this guy getting gored by a bull,” Okung said.

And of course that made him want to stay far, far away from Pamplona, right?

“I was like, ‘yeah, that’s what I’m gonna do,’” Okung continued.

Well of course. That’s a completely normal reaction.

Asked how the conversation went with Pete Carroll before running with the Bulls, Okung answered: “It didn’t go too well, but the thing they knew about me is that I would be safe and as much as I could, do the right thing.”

A day earlier, Carroll was asked if he liked hearing that Okung decided to run with the bulls.

“Well I like hearing that he made it,” Carroll said. “I did ask him, ‘Did you really run with bulls? Did you run alongside of them?’ I think he might have been running alongside the last bull though. But he did make it so… yeah I was happy to hear that he survived it.”

And on the experience? “Man, all I know is you have a plan and it goes straight out the window.”

Okung added that he didn’t watch a lot of video of the event leading up to it because, “I didn’t want to talk myself out of it.”

Okung said this trip to Spain, and yes, the decision to run with the bulls, were just a part of him trying to enjoy life beyond football: “I think that’s extremely important. We’re young guys and we have this whole life ahead of us to really enjoy the experiences life has to offer. So you know, why not? You get the opportunity to go out there, you should.”