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.
To be fair, some of it was deserved because Wilson appeared to be lost at times, making bad reads and decisions.
But if you watched Denver’s games last season, you know that it wasn’t all his fault. Much of it was due to first-year head coach, Nathaniel Hackett, who tried to make Wilson fit into his system instead of designing a system for Wilson.
Yet that didn’t matter to Russell haters. They mercilessly blamed him for the Broncos failures and the team’s putrid 5-12 record.
With Wilson under center in 2022, the Broncos averaged 16.9 points per game, the fewest in the league. The team also had the NFL’s lowest third-down conversion rate (29.13%) and ranked in the bottom (21st) in total yards per game with 325.1. As for Wilson, he had some of the worst stats in his career, including his lowest QB rating (84.4) and completion percentage (60.5%). He was also sacked a career-high 55 times and only threw 16 TDs to 11 INTs.
This wasn’t what the new Broncos ownership group, led by Walmart heir Rob Walton, envisioned when he bought the team for $4.65 billion in 2022.
So management pulled former Saints head coach Sean Payton out of retirement, hoping that he could do in Denver what he once did in New Orleans.
Unfortunately, things didn’t start out smoothly.
First Payton was ripped for blaming Hackett for the team’s and Russell’s woes.
Many, including Hackett’s friend and current Jets QB Aaron Rodgers, took exception to Payton’s criticism. The Russell Wilson haters took the opportunity to take shots at the embattled QB, accusing him of things like being out of shape, being a diva and lacking discipline.
Then the team started out 1-6. While Wilson didn’t play that poorly, the Wilson-Payton experiment was on shaky ground.
But after an October 22nd win against Green Bay, things turned around.
Since then, the Broncos have now won five straight games over teams with winning records including the Chiefs, Bills, Vikings and Browns.
Even more impressively, Wilson and Payton have gelled, the offense is humming and the former Pro Bowl QB has been turnover-free.
Wilson has eclipsed the 200-yard passing mark only once during the current win streak, but he’s thrown 8 TDs and 0 INTs and the Broncos are now 6-5 and in striking distance of a wild card playoff spot.
Yet despite the recent success, praise for Russell Wilson has been reluctant to surface. And it definitely hasn’t appeared as quickly and fervently as the hate for him did.
Wilson deserves to be applauded for what he’s accomplished, especially for enduring the season he did under Hackett last year. And now that the Broncos are winning, he should be included in the Comeback Player of the Year discussions. At the minimum, he should be acknowledged for his role in the team’s rejuvenation.
But for some reason, Wilson seems relegated to receiving more hate than love from the NFL community.
Oh well. I guess he’ll just have to settle for wins, good hair, a beautiful family and $165 million in guaranteed salary.
