Personal trainer on family bye-week Mexico vacay? Russell Wilson never stops preparing
“No time 2 sleep” became “no time 2 bye.”
Russell Wilson, the quarterback who takes “#NoTime2Sleep” to branding level, took his family to Mexico for a vacation during the Seahawks’ just-ended bye week.
He also took his game films to self-scout himself from the first 10 games of this season.
And he took his full-time personal trainer, Decker Davis.
Wait...he took his personal trainer on his family vacation to Mexico?
Que pasa con eso?
“Yeah,” Wilson said Thursday. “He rolls with me.”
Wilson laughed. He seemed to recognize that, yes, it may seem odd to an outsider — or anyone not named Russell Wilson — that he takes his personal trainer along on his vacations with his wife, Ciara, and their two young children.
It’s a glimpse at why Wilson has 26 total touchdowns against just two interceptions for a league-best passer rating of 114.9 this season.
It’s a reveal to some of why he’s won a Super Bowl, started another, been to six Pro Bowls and with a win for Seattle (8-2) on Sunday at Philadelphia (5-5) will become the first quarterback in NFL history with a winning record in each of his first eight seasons.
Why he needs just 263 yards passing to join Peyton Manning as the only two to throw for 3,000 yards with 20-plus touchdowns in each of their first eight years.
Why when he starts against the Eagles, he will extend his franchise-record to 123 consecutive starts, dating to week one of his rookie season of 2012.
It’s what he does during the team’s only time off during the grinding, 17-week NFL regular season, while many if not most of his teammates and players across the league detach completely from football.
As Wilson loves to say and strongly believes: The separation is in the preparation.
Or have you forgotten this is the guy who used Google Maps online in early September to visualize Heinz Field before he and the Seahawks beat the Steelers in his first-ever game at Pittsburgh?
“I think to where I’ve come from: Being a guy, 5-11 from Richmond, Virginia, where a lot of people told me I wouldn’t be able to do it,” Wilson said. “And just to be able to play in the league, it means a lot, just to be able to have this opportunity to play the game.
“I take every opportunity, as much as I can to really cherish it, really try to take advantage of it.”
Even while on his in-season vacation to Mexico.
“I always try to watch the film, of all the games, again. The cut-ups,” Wilson said of his bye-week routine. “(I) just try to see what we can do more of as a team, as an offense. Just kind of think about the games. ‘OK, what worked here? What worked there? What could I have done differently, if anything?’ What those look like.”
They’ve looked darn swell.
Wilson is coming off his clutch throws and key 18-yard scramble late in the Seahawks’ overtime win at previously unbeaten San Francisco on Nov. 11. That has Seattle in control of possibly winning the NFC West over the final six games of the regular season.
“It’s been a great start, so far,” he said of Seattle after 10 games. “ But it’s just a start. We’ve got more places to go, more things to do. Just constantly working.”
Even with his young son. Wilson posted on his social-media outlets a game of his catch with him during the last week off.
“I always say: Back to the basics. Just focus on the basics, especially during the bye week,” Wilson said. “Focus on the fundamentals. Focus on the little things, because you are gone for the week and everything else, so just to be able to do those little things right.
“And, then, to continue that throughout the season. I think the best teams are the ones that do the little things right.”
There is another secret to Wilson’s preparation, one which goes beyond keeping his body fit and his film work keen.
It’s training and maintaining his brain.
“I work at it. I work at the mind part,” he said. “Every day I’m pretty much talking to Trevor Moawad, who is my mental coach, and a guy who I am constantly talking to. I think that’s a big part of it.
Moawad, from Lakewood, is the founder and president of Moawad Consulting Group based in Scottsdale, Arizona. In 2017, Sports Illustrated named him “the sports world’s best brain trainer” for his work with Wilson, with coach Nick Saban and Alabama’s dynastic college football powerhouse, the University of Georgia and others.
Moawad has partnered with Wilson since 2011. That was the year before the Seahawks selected him in the third round of the NFL draft. Then they made him their starter from game one.
Moawad’s M.O. is building cognitive strength. His path for Wilson is not so much positive thinking as eliminating negative thoughts. His methods keep the quarterback grounded and evenly tempered, whether down seven with the ball, no time outs and 50 seconds left or on a beach in Mexico with his family—and his personal trainer—during a bye-week vacation.
Wilson is convinced mental conditioning is why he has the most wins by an NFL quarterback in November, December into January (46, against 17 losses and a tie) since 2012.
To him, it’s why his career road passer rating of 99.5 is the best in NFL history.
It’s why his 32 fourth-quarter and overtime comeback victories since 2012 also lead the league. His 32nd rally to win was Nov. 11 in Santa Clara. He and the Seahawks came back from down 10-0. Then after the 49ers rallied from down 21-10 to tie the game with 1 second left in regulation, Wilson and kicker Jason Myers won it in overtime.
“For me, it’s just trying to stay neutral,” Wilson said, using one of Moawad’s buzzwords. “I’m not trying to be too high or too low. Just focused on the task at hand.
“Try to get the mission accomplished.”
That fits the Army-camouflage backpack Wilson was wearing out of the locker room between meetings before practice Thursday.
His offensive coordinator sees a reason Wilson gets almost all missions accomplished.
“He’s just so poised,” coach Brian Schottenheimer said Thursday. “The noise doesn’t affect him. The conditions don’t affect him. It doesn’t matter whether you’re playing outside and it’s cold or rainy. The moment just is never too big for him.
“I think that comes from having success and playing in big games and doing that. He’s the same guy at home, on the road, in the playoffs, in the preseason. He’s the same guy.”
Schottenheimer says Wilson also dominates the mental state of game-plan prep.
“The things that he does at the line of scrimmage is unbelievable. It doesn’t get probably talked about enough.” Schottenheimer said. “He solves so many problems at the line of scrimmage with protection changes, run checks, things like that. That’s the first element that we kind of dove into going back a year.”
Of course, Wilson is famously, relentlessly positive, too.
“(I) still stay upbeat, no matter what the circumstances are, and just staying focused,” Wilson said. “And having great language, I think, is a big part of that. How we speak to each other, how we speak in the locker room, how we go about our business and our preparation is critical.
“And when the game’s on the line, giving guys a visual of what’s going to happen. Just giving guys a belief that something great is going to happen—because a lot of times, something great does. Why wouldn’t you believe?
“I really, firmly believe that. I firmly believe, why not us?
“Why can’t we be the best in the world?”
The (football) world is noticing, particularly this season.
Wilson and Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson are the leading candidates for the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award. That’s voted on by 50 media members from each league market plus national media members who follow the league each week.
He earned the richest contract in NFL history when the Seahawks extended him for $140 million this spring. Yet Wilson has never won the league MVP award.
“I don’t pay attention to it. I’ve got to pay attention to who we are playing this week,” he said.
“I think it’s great to be in the conversation. ...When I come into the season, I want to be the best player in the National Football League, every time I step on the football field, every time I get a chance to play. That’s just the reality, which is all great and all well. But I don’t think about the outside stuff.
“The reality is, what helps is winning. What helps is finding a way to win in tough moments and everything else.
“I look forward to that opportunity just to play one game at a time, one moment at a time, and just embrace it all.”
This story was originally published November 22, 2019 at 6:43 AM.
