RENTON — Russell Wilson is not just the face of the Seattle Seahawks’ franchise. He is, as teammate Richard Sherman said, his own brand.
As the NFL’s top, superstar quarterbacks do, Wilson has branding and endorsement considerations to consider in speaking up or out, about anything. Plus, he is inherently programmed to be formulaic and measured in what he says and does.
But last weekend, Wilson got real with his teammates. And they were wowed.
“I was incredibly proud of him,” Richard Sherman said.
The Seahawks gathered for an intense, emotional team meeting like no other before their game at Tennessee. Coach Pete Carroll spent hours on Saturday in their downtown Nashville hotel discussing with his council of leading veteran players what the team should do during last Sunday’s national anthem. It wanted to back Pro Bowl defensive end Michael Bennett’s protest during the anthem he started last month for the mistreatment of minorities and need for police reform in our society — and to protest President Donald Trump.
Not every Seahawk wanted to sit or kneel during the anthem. Some in the locker room are supporters of Trump. A day earlier the president had stated at a political rally in Alabama every NFL owner should “fire” any player that sits or kneels during the anthem — and that such a protesting player is a “son of a (expletive).”
Amid the differing opinions and suggestions of what the Seahawks should do — one nixed proposal, Sherman said, was for every player to kneel along the sideline behind a flag raised only to half staff — Wilson spoke up. Passionately.
“I think that he was very human. He was very vulnerable talking to the team,” Sherman said. “I think that was a huge moment for him.”
Why did the talk and cause inspire Wilson to speak up so forcefully to his teammates?
“The overall gist of it all was: You know … I’ve been fortunate to have my own kids now, and see other players on our team have kids. And different races and people,” Wilson said Thursday, before practice for Sunday night’s home game against Indianapolis. “I think about our huddle. I think about when I go into the huddle there’s 10 other guys in the huddle, and there’s all different races. There’s black guys. There’s white guys. There’s guys from other locations and different socioeconomic statuses who grew up different. But we all share one common cause, and one common goal: We all want to win, and we all want to make a difference in our communities.
“Really, for me, I was passionate about it because I am really concerned about what’s next, for our future, for our future kids and what we are going to do for the people who are going to lead this world one day. I pray for my kids every day that when they go to school that racism isn’t a thing that stops them from going where they want to go. And it’s not just my kids. It’s your kids. It’s everybody’s kids. I think that’s really critical.
“That was on my mind. That was on my heart, especially.”
Wilson said Seahawks players have talked very directly about how “we love the military.”
“I have family who served and done stuff,” Wilson said. “I think about that, and I think about people that put their lives on the line for wars and everything else. And we respect that and we love that.”
Wilson referenced the many visits he and his teammates have with military units and personnel from around the Puget Sound region, including the 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) from Joint Base Lewis-McChord that visited training camp last month.
“We have 100-percent respect for what people do to allow us to play the game of football,” Wilson said.
After Wilson spoke of the need to do something, as an entire team, the Seahawks players decided to stay in their locker room in Nashville during the anthem. The players didn’t want to put those teammates who want to believe they should stand for every anthem, and those who support Trump — and the Seahawks have both — in the position of having to choose between what they believe in and team unity. So they decided to stay inside.
They eventually contacted leading players for the opposing Titans, and they, too, decided to stay in their locker room. That made theirs the only NFL game last weekend, and in the last two seasons since Colin Kaepernick began this movement in the league by kneeling during the anthem in the 2016 preseason, where neither team was on the field for the anthem.
“I think the overall thought for us was really to be unified, and to really be able to do something that ultimately — and we’re not stopping now, it’s really a sense of something we want to do for the rest of our lives — is to encourage different races and different people to come together. It’s never a thing of discouragement.
“For us, we have this great opportunity to acknowledge something that’s real. Racism in America right now is very, very real …
“What’s going on in our communities and everything else, it’s very important for us to make a difference in our community. To bring the black people together and the white people together. To bring Latinos, to bring people from all different races and places together, not apart.”
Wilson said when he spoke up in the team meeting last weekend he also thought of his weekly, Tuesday visits to Seattle Children’s hospital throughout the year. Of the critically ill kids from all walks of life he meets and inspires.
“You see all these kids from different races and everything. And sickness doesn’t know race. It doesn’t,” Wilson said. “I think that sometimes, right now, especially in this time, (it’s about) bringing people together through love. That’s really the only way we can help heal the world … We all need to learn to love better. I need to. I know you need to. And I know the people throughout our country need to.
“And it’s an imperative issue. It can be my kids. And it can be your kids.”
Thomas, Baldwin miss again
Earl Thomas missed a second consecutive day of practice with a knee injury. That became new on Wednesday.
But there’s no new concern the most indispensable player on the Seahawks defense won’t play in Sunday night’s game against Indianapolis.
So says the three-time All-Pro safety’s defensive coordinator and former defensive backs coach.
“Here is one thing I know about Earl: As long as he doesn’t have any broken bones and he can breathe, he can play,” Kris Richard said following Thursday’s practice without Thomas. “So yeah, right now, it’s not a concern. He is still preparing as if he is going to play.
“And we fully expect him to.”
The only games Thomas has missed since Seattle drafted him in the first round in 2010 are last November at Tampa Bay when he had a badly strained hamstring — and comically watched that game at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Portland — then the last four of last regular season and two playoff games in January. Those latter absences came after he broke his tibia Dec. 4.
The Seahawks’ words are not an unequivocal on Doug Baldwin. Their top wide receiver missed another practice with a groin strain he got while making a career-high 10 catches on 15 targets last weekend in the loss at Tennessee.
The team didn’t expect Baldwin to practice this week, though when asked if he is going to play against the Colts Baldwin said Wednesday: “That’s the plan.”
Baldwin has missed two games in his career, in 2012 when he was injured during his second season with the Seahawks and in the NFL.
Running back C.J. Prosise appears to be unlikely to play Sunday because of an ankle injury he got in the fourth quarter against the Titans. J.D. McKissic, who has been inactive for the first three games, could get some of Prosise’s role as a third-down, pass-catching back.
So could rookie and leading back Chris Carson. He’s done everything impressing coaches since the start of training to win the No.-1 job over Thomas Rawls and Eddie Lacy so far through three games.
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