Pete Carroll, Russell Wilson, John Schneider, Seattle Seahawks.
Everything is great in the beginning, or else it wouldn’t begin at all. You meet someone unexpected, things click and you realize “hey there’s something here.” A decade ago, the Seattle Seahawks drafted an undersized quarterback from the University of Wisconsin, in the third round and felt the same way: hey there’s something here.
Despite a sizable investment in free agent passer Matt Flynn, the Seahawks ended up with Russell Wilson as their QB that season. It was a great beginning.
The next few seasons were the honeymoon years. That person seems perfect and you know they’re the one. You know you can get through anything and this is going to be forever.
In year one he brought the team from 7-9 to 11-5. In his rookie season, Wilson came just this close to taking down the Atlanta Flacons and making it to the NFC title game. Seattle and the 12s knew they had someone special in their fold.
The next season was just bliss. With an all-time NFL defense and a power, “Beast-led” running game, Seattle ran roughshod over the NFL. They produced an NFL-best 13-3 record.
Two wins over Drew Brees and the Saints and their bitter rivals in San Francisco brought the Seattle Seahawks to the Super Bowl. In a shocking blowout, Seattle destroyed Peyton Manning and the Broncos 43-8 in SB XLVIII. Seattle and their young quarterback were champions.
The following season they ran it back and the machine rolled on. The more 12s got to know Russ, the more there was to love. His visits to Seattle Children’s on Tuesdays, the even-keeled leadership in the huddle, and what seemed like his genuine love for the Emerald City.
When things are going well you never question the other person’s sincerity. It couldn’t be any better than this.
After a miraculous NFC title game win, the Seahawks found themselves in a second consecutive Super Bowl. Unfortunately, this game was played much closer, and a bad decision by Russ at the end lost the game.
We tried to rationalize. It was Pete Carroll or Darrell Bevill’s fault for calling a pass instead of giving the ball to Marshawn Lynch. It should have been pass interference, etc. Still, things were never quite the same.
We slowly shed all our old friends over the years the way Seattle let go of veterans. Soon your whole life is based around this person, and the Seattle Seahawks became completely Russ-centric. Things still seemed good, but something was off. The team won but didn’t WIN.
They never came close to making another Super Bowl. Russ felt unappreciated for the job he did and Seattle’s brain trust couldn’t help but feel slighted when he called them out publicly a year ago.
Since then it’s been a lot of passive-aggressive commentary and media leaks. Russ never wanted to look like the bad guy. All it did was magnify that he sure wasn’t the good guy. It feels like Carroll and GM John Schneider just looked and realized Wilson wasn’t the same guy he was before.
It would be easy to blame it on money, fame, his celebrity marriage, or any number of reasons. Really though maybe it was always just Russ.
The one thing you always know is even if things go bad in a relationship when you’re this close if it ends it won’t be for someone else. You’ll just agree it’s not working out and move on. Russ though couldn’t help but let the Seattle Seahawks and their fans know all the places he’d rather be.
It seemed like there was a quarterly update to the list of teams he’d accept a trade to. For a guy in a committed situation in Seattle, who kept saying he wanted to be there, this was odd.
All of this brings us to Tuesday’s shocking trade. Seattle is sending Russ to a prettier, younger team in Denver. Everything ends badly… or else it wouldn’t end.
He obviously didn’t want to make it work anymore. That’s his right, and we’ll always have the championship and all the memories of those first few years. At the end of the day, Wilson was maybe not quite the man we thought he was, and maybe it was time for everyone to move on.
I can’t wish him luck after how he played this out, but I can thank him for the great years, and when he comes back to town this season we owe him one last ovation when he steps on the field. Then he gets treated like any other opponent.
What do you think about Russell Wilson’s departure? Let us know in the comments section below.