Russell Wilson visiting kids at Seattle Children’s takes on even more meaning at Christmas
Malik Turner was walking in with a king.
That’s what they think Russell Wilson is at Seattle Children’s hospital.
That’s what Sadie and Remy think he is.
“There was a girl, a family, mother Remy and daughter Sadie. And she needed chemo,” Turner, one of Wilson’s receiving targets for the Seahawks, said.
Turner was talking the day after he accompanied Seattle’s franchise quarterback on his latest weekly visit to see the sickest kids in one of the nation’s premier pediatric hospitals.
“(I) got to be a part of somebody beating the odds, you know what I mean?” Turner said.
“It was special. REALLY special moment.”
Wilson has these moments every—I mean, every—Tuesday. His visits to Seattle Children’s are legendary in and around the hospital in northeast Seattle.
But they take on even more meaning and impact during the holiday season.
The sickest patients in longer-term at Seattle Children’s don’t get to be home for Christmas. They stay in the hospital, in the same beds and rooms they are in every other day, hooked up to the same IVs and machines. They have the same nurse check-ups, the same physical-, speech- and occupational-therapy sessions, the same doctors’ bed-side calls as any other day.
Russell Wilson is these kids’ Santa Claus.
That’s what he was for Sadie and other children this Tuesday.
A couple hours after his latest visit, the NFL announced Wilson’s seventh selection to the Pro Bowl. He is second in the league with 28 touchdown passes. He has 31 total touchdowns against just five interceptions. His passer rating of 109.3 is fifth in the NFL. He has the Seahawks 11-3 entering Sunday’s home game against Arizona (4-9-1). Seattle is two wins from another NFC West title, a first-round bye and at least one home playoff game next month.
The seven Pro Bowls ties Wilson with Steve Largent for third-most all-star game selections in Seahawks’ franchise history. Cortez Kennedy had eight. Walter Jones had nine.
Largent, Kennedy and Jones are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
On Wilson’s way there, he’s in Seattle’s Children’s hearts.
“I kind of talked to him about it,” Turner said. “Russ, the way he carries himself, his personality, there’s something about him when he’s around people. He makes them feel...makes them feel safe and secure. That everything is going to be all right.
“The way he cares for others, I think, is special. He’s just a natural when it comes to comforting and just giving. Giving his all.
“Just a selfless person.”
Wilson has been doing this every week, in season and out, spring, summer, winter through fall, since his rookie season of 2012.
“Going there this time of year...I think emotionally, every kid wants to go to the mall and see Santa or spend time with their family. And they can’t,” Wilson said Thursday.
“I think first of all, I think the Seattle Children’s Hospital does a great job of trying to make it feel like home. The reality is, it’s not home.
“I think: How do you bring a little grace, a little love a little peace there?
“That’s really what we try to do. Hopefully, we can do that for a glimpse of a moment.”
He often brings his wife, recording artist Ciara. They don’t just hang out shaking hands in the cafeteria or hospital’s play room, either. They go up onto the inpatient floors. They change the lives of patients and their families that need hope and a smile, or three.
Wilson goes into the intensive-care unit. He puts on protective suits and masks to prevent getting infected, or infecting those kids with complications in the burn and cancer units.
“Any time you go to Children’s, it can always be tough. It could also be a joy,” Wilson said Thursday.
“Ciara and I always talk about this, but every time you go into the room, it’s different expectations. It’s different beliefs and everything else.”
This week, Wilson brought Turner, who has emerged as a clutch third-down receiver with an uncommonly close on-field bond with the superstar QB. Uncommon, in that Turner was an undrafted rookie from Illinois in 2018 who made the team last year for special teams. He’s earned Wilson’s trust with dogged work on the field in practices, then production in games.
“Going to Children’s this time of the year is always kind of emotional, especially having kids now. It’s even harder a little bit, to be honest with you. When I used to go my first or second year, I didn’t have kids. When you have kids of your own and you realize those kids could be your kids, it could be somebody’s kids you actually know or somebody’s kids you used to know, it gets heavy.
“That’s why we’re fortunate to be able to do what we get to do and try to love people. Trying to spread love. Trying to raise resources for families that can’t afford it. Trying to raise resources for research.”
The Wilsons do that through the quarterback’s Why Not You Foundation he founded in 2014. He does it through custom-designed, children’s-themed game shoes he wears in week 14 of each season for the NFL’s My Cause My Cleats initiative for charities and causes.
When Wilson first walked into Seattle Children’s hospital in 2012, 23 years old in a new city starting a new career, he needed a reason to be there.
He also needed a name tag.
“The lady said, ‘Who are you, again?’” Wilson recalled this fall, laughing.
He doesn’t need a name tag anymore.
Pretty much every Tuesday, in season and out, for the last 7 1/2 years, Wilson has gone back. He brings gifts. Not just material ones. Smiles and joy to kids and their families who need them more than any of us know.
The same guy who used to almost talk his way in seven years ago now has patients, families and staff eagerly anticipating his visits. It’s the undeniable highlight of their week. Every week.
The rest of the Pacific Northwest has its “Blue Fridays,” for Seahawks Sunday games. Seattle Children’s has “Blue Tuesdays.”
Yes, Wilson’s visits are bigger than that week’s football game.
“It’s been probably one of the greatest things that’s ever happened to me,” Wilson said of his bonds with Seattle Children’s patients, families and staff.
This is a man who’s won a Super Bowl, who signed an NFL-record $140 million contract this spring, and is going to the playoffs next month for the seventh time in eight seasons.
Last month, Turner caught his first scoring pass of his career, a 33-yard throw by Wilson. It was one of Seattle’s two touchdowns in the 17-9 win at Philadelphia.
Tuesday, Turner got to experience Wilson’s excellence at Seattle Children’s.
“I was glad to be by his side, and just seeing how he can—we can—affect people, and just how to handle ourselves in situations,” Turner said. “Because it’s tough, walking into a hospital and everyone has their things that they are going through, and just being sensitive to that and knowing how to handle yourself and just be yourself.”
“It was awesome. It really was.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2019 at 6:53 AM.
