Inside the mind, middle-of-the night preparation of Russell Wilson before each Seahawks game
Brian Schottenheimer has been an NFL assistant for 19 years. Before that, he was around NFL locker rooms and meeting rooms since he was a tyke, as the son of long-time league head coach Marty Schottenheimer.
Yet he is still learning in his first months with the Seahawks.
Not just learning Pete Carroll’s culture, his personnel, how many running backs he has that can produce 100-yard games and Russell Wilson’s improvisational skills with the football.
Seattle’s first-year offensive coordinator is also becoming familiar with what his franchise quarterback means when Wilson recites one of his favorite catch phrases: “No time to sleep.”
“I would say the organization (Wilson has) is unlike any I’ve ever seen, in terms of computer printouts...” Schottenheimer said following Tuesday’s practice for Thursday night’s home game against Green Bay and another elite, unique quarterback, Aaron Rodgers.
Wait... computer printouts?
This was the second time in a few weeks Schottenheimer has mentioned without much elaboration reports Wilson prints and presents to his coaches and teammates following games. They apparently are the quarterback’s assessments of what worked, what didn’t and suggestions on how to improve the offense and his own game.
“It’s impressive. He’s an unbelievable worker,” Schottenheimer said. “I get texts at all kinds of hours of the night. I’m not sure when he sleeps.
“I don’t sleep much, but I don’t know when he sleeps.
“All kinds of strange hours: ‘Hey, what about this? What about that?’ He’s always thinking the game. And what’s probably different for him from some of the other guys I’ve been around is his willingness to share what he’s done and prepared with the rest of the group.”
On top of being Seattle’s $87.6 million quarterback who’s started two Super Bowls and won one, beyond being a husband, a father, a visitor to Seattle Children’s hospital each Tuesday to visit our region’s sickest and youngest, the CEO of his own media-production and brand-management company (Seattle-based West2East Empire) and an estimated $10-million-per-year product pitchman for Microsoft, Braun, Bose, Alaska Airlines, Duracell and others, Wilson is also a Seahawks football analytics guy.
No wonder he has “no time to sleep.”
“Very organized. He’s very organized,” said Schottenheimer, who has coached elite quarterbacks in the NFL such as Brett Favre, Philip Rivers and Andrew Luck. “They all prepare. You can’t play this position at such a high level and not prepare.
“He’s very selfless in a lot of the things that he does,” Schottenheimer said of Wilson. “He shares with the group, both coaches and players alike.”
Wilson has said he gets as little as four to six hours of sleep each weeknight during his preparation between games. That includes biking and swimming.
“I swim a lot, just normally on a normal week, but also on a day like today,” he said Tuesday. “I just do the little things, making sure that I get my body treated.”
Wilson spends even more of his between-games hours picturing in his mind, and drawing those pictures on paper, the exact plays and moments he expects to happen in the next contest.
“The most important thing is really the mental side of the game,” he said. “You have to really kind of visualize everything and why you’re doing it. For me, I draw things up a lot. I literally draw, and just kind of visualize what it’s going to look like and what it could look like and just get prepared for what a Thursday night game may be.
“On a typical week, I usually swim Mondays and Tuesdays. I usually swim about 20 to 30 laps. For me, depending on how I’m feeling after the game, a day like (Monday) I usually go about 30, and just try to swim as much as I can without killing myself. I don’t swim a crazy ton, but I just try to make sure that my body is moving, get the lactic acid out of my body.
“Then, I make sure I get on the bike too. The bike is really helpful as well.”
Then he Rip Van Winkles it on Saturdays before Sunday games. Maybe 12 hours of catch-up sleep just before games.
This all leads us to another of his pet phrases: The separation is in the preparation.
He explained that on Tuesday, after I asked him about Rodgers, the Packers’ two-time league MVP and a Super Bowl champion like himself.
Rodgers and Wilson will face each other for the seventh time Thursday night at CenturyLink Field.
“I think what makes Aaron so great is he’s clutch,” Wilson said.
Wilson knows something about clutch.
He is 26-7 following a Seahawks in-season loss. That’s the best such record by an NFL QB since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger. Since 2012 only Tom Brady (39) has more regular-season wins in November, December and January than Wilson (38).
Clutch? He threw an NFL-record 19 touchdown passes in the fourth quarter last season. He’s led 24 game-winning drives in the fourth quarter and overtime (regular season and playoffs) since 2012. Only Detroit’s Matthew Stafford (25) has more late comebacks in the league in that span.
Is being clutch a learned trait, part of that “separation is in the preparation”? Or are people just born with, or without, it?
“That’s a good question,” Wilson said. ““In terms of making plays in the clutch, I think it’s a mixture of a few things. First of all, the first thing you have to have is great confidence. You have to have no fear in tough moments when the game is on the line. You have to look forward to those moments.
“I think the second thing is you have to visualize those moments, not just in the middle of a game, but on your off-day, in the summer time, your whole life. You visualize making the play, making the catch, making the throw, hitting the home run, whatever it may be. Then, I think, the final thing is it’s just about ultimately in those moments trying to do things right. Really, really tight and just trying to do all the little things right.”
Wait, isn’t luck—a penalty going your way, a fake field pass from a punter to a tackle for a touchdown, then a recovered onside kick late, both of which Wilson had before his overtime touchdown pass to Jermaine Kearse to beat Rodgers and the Packers in the NFC title game in January 2015—also a factor in being clutch?
“I’m not really a luck person,” he said. “I believe in great habits.
“I think that’s when great players—great free-throw shooters they may say keep your elbow in—focus on the little things. I think those are the things that really show up across the board, especially in a team sport, so I think that’s always really critical.”
He and his Seahawks need clutch right now. They are a 4-5 team that needs six wins in its final seven games to have a best chance at a return to the playoffs.
Wilson was leading a 4-5 team in mid-November 2015, then won five consecutive games to clinch another playoff berth with two games still remaining in that regular season.
“I think that we are on the verge of doing all those things,” Wilson said of focusing on the critical little things to make another late-season push.
So, yes, Schottenheimer can expect seven more weeks of middle-of-the-night texts to his play caller.
And computer printouts.
“I think there’s a lot of urgency. I think there’s a great sense of urgency” Wilson said. “I think there’s a calmness. I think there’s also great confidence. I think there’s laser focus that we have. I know that this team is very, very capable of doing what we’re setting out to do.
“I think everybody should watch out (for) what we can do.”
This story was originally published November 14, 2018 at 7:33 AM.