That’s Russell Wilson. If you had never watched the NFL and I told you our quarterback was a Pro Bowler, perennial MVP candidate, Super Bowl champion, and a college All-American who set the NCAA record for passing efficiency, you’d think he was some kind of golden child, number-one draft pick: Archie Manning’s other son.
But Russell Wilson was a third-rounder—and he was actually picked behind a punter. A punter! The main reason for that, in my opinion, is that a lot of NFL scouts just don’t know their business. They are risk averse, scared of doing something different or thinking outside a very tiny box. They have a type, and if you don’t fit that type you might as well not play. Russell Wilson is five feet ten, and that was enough for no one to take him seriously. Scouts have lost jobs that they would have right now if they had just picked Russell Wilson.
Beyond the play, Russ is central to this brotherhood. I see Russ evolving every year. I love him because he has laid claim to his own style of leadership and his own way of looking at the world. He is so genuine that people who don’t know him think he’s fake, which is ironic as hell. He’s himself. It’s crazy that people call him phony. One thing about an NFL locker room, you know who the phonies are within five minutes. If Russ were screaming like Tom Brady, with spit flying out of the corner of his mouth, that would be phony. Russ is himself. It’s like Muhammad Ali said: “I don’t have to be what you want me to be.”
Somehow a rumor became a big media story—that defensive players were mad because Coach Carroll “protects” Russell Wilson and treats him differently. The whole thing was just stupid. Everybody in the world is treated differently, in some way or another. Nobody is treated exactly the same. Even when you’ve got kids, you don’t treat every kid the same way. Also, Russ is a quarterback, and all quarterbacks are treated differently. Every team I’ve been on, from flag football on up, the quarterback has been treated differently. Not in a bad way. They’ve got a different sort of relationship with the offensive coordinator. I don’t like to talk to the defensive coordinator. Just tell me the play and let me do my job. But the QB and offensive coordinator have to be closer than brothers: they have to share a brain in order to understand the vision and what the other is doing.
Russ is a good friend and good people, and kids are attracted to him like he’s covered in candy. My oldest daughter told me Russell Wilson was her favorite player. That was too much. I took her TV. I said, “Russell Wilson can buy you a new TV.”
But I do have to give Russ credit. He helped me get a table when I called a restaurant and they were all booked up. I called them back a few minutes later and said, “Hey, this is Russell Wilson. I’ll be attending your restaurant today. Do you have any tables?”
And the hostess was like, “Yes! We can make a table for you! You were 22 for 30 the other night, 130 quarterback rating!” She knew every stat.
When I got to the restaurant with my wife and kids, I said, “Oh, thank you. I’m Russell Wilson.”
She was like, “Good joke.”
I said, “Gotcha.” She took me to the table and it was separated with a velvet rope—a makeshift VIP section. They had sparkling water and everything.
My brother is also Steven Hauschka, our former kicker. I miss Hauschka. The only NFL jersey I have in my house, other than my own, is Steven Hauschka’s. People think that being the place kicker is the simplest job on the team, but to me, you have to have a very special mind. The game is on your feet several times a season, and you’re only as good as your last kick. Adam Vinatieri won two Super Bowls on the last play, but if he’d missed his final field goal with the game on the line, he’d be a bum.
Hauschka is a really cool dude. I think of Hauschka and Justin Britt in very similar ways. One is a kicker and the other is six feet six and 320 pounds, but they are both my brothers. They have taught me that there are times when race doesn’t play a part in our interpersonal relations, and we all just become spiritual. People are friends simply because they have the same moral code. They believe in the same things because they are good people. Not on a shallow level, but on the level of being vulnerable, really getting to know somebody, and being there for each other. My white brothers are important to everything that we do, especially in confronting racism and what divides us. I want them standing with me, as Hauschka did when he was on the team and as Britt did on the sideline.
Marshawn Lynch is my brother. He is the best running back I’ve ever seen, a star at Cal–Berkeley, a star in Buffalo, and then a legend with the Seahawks. He retired for a year but then came back and played on his hometown team, the Oakland Raiders. Marshawn sat for the anthem the night before I did, holding an unripe banana. The significance of the banana is known only to Marshawn. After that preseason game, people were joking that maybe he came out of retirement
