Russell Wilson Spreads His Football Gospel to the Broncos

His quest renews Monday night when the Broncos open the season against, coincidence of coincidences, the Seahawks in Seattle.

Since the trade, Wilson has not elaborated on either the good or the bad in his time there — the games won and lost, the relationships fostered and frayed, the semantics cloaking his departure. Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll, known for preaching mindfulness and visualization techniques, would say only that the team hadn’t been “spurned” by Wilson.

“It wasn’t like it happened to us,” Carroll said in an interview after a mid-August practice. “We were prepared to make it happen.”

It seemed telling that two men known for expounding on the power of positivity ended a successful era with such terse, and nebulous, statements.

Athletes’ challenges — injuries, personal tragedies, professional slights — tend to connect with fans as much as their triumphs. Wilson’s penchant for platitudes can obscure exactly how much adversity has shaped him, with the challenge seemingly revealed in his tears after a big win. The death of his father, Harrison, from diabetic complications in 2010. N.F.L. teams having passed on him in the draft because of his height. His infamous interception in the Super Bowl in the 2014 season that ended Seattle’s bid for back-to-back titles.

The trade wasn’t the only upheaval to Wilson’s life. Trevor Moawad, Wilson’s close friend and the architect of his mental approach, died of cancer in September 2021. They’d met as Wilson prepared for the 2012 draft, and Moawad moved into Wilson’s San Diego place the day after that Super Bowl interception and stayed for a month. Throughout their friendship, Wilson could depend on Moawad to say two things: that he believed in Wilson and that the best was ahead.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/10/sports/football/russell-wilson-denver-broncos.html