It’s time to start appreciating Russ.
For some reason, Russell Wilson is a lightning rod for negativity and a favorite target of haters who love finding reasons to attack him.
Some say it’s because of his personality, which they say is fake. Others dislike his vibe and appearance, possibly because he’s light-skinned with good hair (IYKYK). Some are jealous of his fame and family, particularly of his wife Ciara. Others claim Russ is simply corny.
To some Black people, Russ is reminiscent of that one Black college student who never hung out in the back of the cafeteria, didn’t listen to Hip-hop, never attended parties at the “Black house” and wore checkered lumberjack shirts to white frat parties.
But where was this venomous hate for the leader of the Seahawks while he was in Seattle?
During his decade in the Pacific Northwest, Wilson won a Super Bowl (he should have won two but Pete Carroll messed that up), was a 9x Pro Bowler and won the 2020 Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. He amassed a record of 104-53-1 and threw for 37,059 yards with 292 TDs and 87 INTs.
This was also the QB who, instead of taking a knee to end a game in 2021, called an audible to help a teammate receive a $100,000 performance bonus.
“We called that play because David had $100,000 if he gets that catch,’’ said Wilson at the time per The Seattle Times. “So you know, it’s a blessing to be able to help his family and his daughter and all that stuff. It was part of the game, we wanted to get him that catch and so we were able to dial that up for him that last play.’’
But after ten years and only one losing season (6-8 in 2021, his last in Seattle), he was shipped to Denver in a blockbuster trade.
And that’s when the hate for Russell Wilson erupted.
Now, there was always some distaste for Wilson while he was in Seattle despite the success he helped generate for the franchise. But after arriving in Denver, all it took was the star QB to utter “Broncos Nation, let’s ride!” for the anti-DangeRuss campaign to begin.
And it was relentless.
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