Corny. It’s the first word that comes to my mind when I think of Russell Wilson, the longtime Seahawks quarterback and 2013 Super Bowl champ. The second word? Basically the same: cringe.Wilson did himself zero favors. He nicknamed himself “Mr. Unlimited” and gave us “Broncos Country, Let’s Ride.” He did some brutal Subway commercials. High-knees in the aisle of the team plane. He practiced high-fiving non-existent fans during a summer practice.It was so bad that Sports Illustrated made a nearly six-minute video ranking every Russell Wilson meme and still missed plenty.Quirkiness aside, Wilson has been a Hall of Fame-level human. I can’t think of any quarterback who spent more time in public service than the 2020 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year and 2022 Bart Starr Award winner.
He spent days off making weekly trips to Seattle Children’s Hospital and raised over a million dollars to support its cancer initiative.
He supported American service members, hosted a youth football camp (with proceeds going toward a diabetes non-profit) and together with his wife, the entertainer Ciara, donated a million meals to those in need during the global pandemic.
So while he might be cringe-inducing, the world needs more people like him.As for his playing career, is he a Pro Football Hall of Famer? Certainly not, in my opinion. My colleague (and Hall of Fame selector) Mike Sando shared his perspective on Wilson’s credentials, which weighs both sides. Most glaring? Wilson’s post-Seattle splits:Seattle’s Wilson was the equivalent of a Matt Ryan-type quarterback. Post-Seattle, he basically became Justin Fields.It gets worse. As Mike explains in his story, Wilson seems unlikely to receive a Hall jacket for reasons beyond just his historic collapse, such as:
