Russell Wilson sees racism, police stopping protesters rights--and hope. In white Seahawks
Russell Wilson sees murder.
He sees racism.
He sees a country that has failed blacks and minorities for more than 400 years, back to when his great, great grandparents were slaves. He sees a United States that has failed to make real, lasting changes toward social equality and police reform.
Yet the most prominent and important Seahawks player also sees hope.
In his white teammates.
Seventy of the 90 players on Seattle’s 90-man offseason roster are black. Wilson says his white teammates have been strong advocates this week for their majority black colleagues’ concerns, for the causes for social inequality and police brutality.
Their forum: daily team meetings online via Zoom one week after George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died from being pressed face-down onto a street by the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer to his neck for more than 8 minutes.
The Seahawks are spread across the country in their offseason homes away from team headquarters in Renton, which is closed by the coronavirus pandemic. The players have been having daily online Zoom video calls since last month.
Those calls are supposed to be on football. But this week coach Pete Carroll swung open the calls to becoming intense, probing, player-led discussions on race in our country.
“Our white teammates have stepped up,” Wilson said.
He mentioned veteran tight ends Greg Olsen, Will Dissly, Luke Willson, Jacob Hollister and others.
“They’ve said, ‘I want to do something around this. I want to do something to change. I want to do my part, in whatever small part that I can have or whatever big part that I can have. I want to be able to make a difference.’
“It was powerful.”
Wilson acknowledges that, “yeah, it doesn’t heal the situation. It doesn’t make it perfect. We can’t get it back, unfortunately.
“But it allows us to look forward. And hope.”
Targeted calls
The Seahawks were supposed to have another online team meeting Thursday. But they canceled it, to honor the memorial service in Minneapolis for Floyd.
The last two months, until Thursday’s pause for Floyd’s memory, the Seahawks have gone to work like many Americans have during the pandemic: virtually, online from their home on Zoom calls. Each day until the NFL unprecedented virtual offseason training ends June 26 they will join a daily video call online led first by Carroll in a team-wide gallery of players arranged on the screen like a giant gallery of faces, Brady Bunch style.
Then the call splits. One segment is for the offensive players and another is for the defense. After a while the players split up again virtually into their position groups.
These calls go on for 90 minutes to around two hours each day. They usually go over formations and play terminology, what the team calls “install.” That’s the installation of the playbook for the coming season.
Not this week. Real life is too important right now.
“We broke up into offense—and defense, obviously—but in our offensive group we had different leaders. Then we break out into our little small groups,” Wilson said. “We got ask guys questions about their experiences in what they’ve faced, and different experiences.
“The reality is that it’s super important that we have those conversations. I think about guys like Will Dissly and Hollister and Greg Olsen, different guys, Willson, different guys saying, ‘What can I do? I want to listen more. I want to do this more. Hey, I want to actually make a difference.’
“I think it was Luke, one our teammates mentioned that, ‘If somebody’s talking bad about one of my friends I want to make sure that I say something.’
“Just making sure that we are doing our part.”
Supporting the protesters
Like the rest of us, Wilson has watched on television citizens marching in our nation’s city streets to protest Floyd’s killing, and the awful state of race relations in the U.S.
The Seahawk with the biggest platform beyond football stressed the importance of protesting to affect and realize social change. He objects to police clashing with peaceful protesters in Seattle by firing tear gas and flash-bang grenades at them, whatever the circumstance.
“What is right is our ability to protest,” Wilson said. “What’s going on is, people are protesting, and we have police and the National Guard coming in and it’s overwhelming and it’s not allowing people what their right is, and that’s to protest peacefully.
“And that’s a shame.”
The Seahawks have talked about that and more in the virtual meetings this week that have extended even further than expected.
Wilson said the Seahawks have left those meetings this week “with an understanding.”
“Hopeful? I’m always hopeful, because I never want to be the other way around,” he said. “But I am also realistic, too, because I know this is going to take some time. This is going to take real change. This is going to take real, significant change. ...
“I believe we are going to do everything we can to be a part of that change. I think that is what is hopeful for our team. And hopeful for our city, because I know a lot of people look up to us as a city and as a team. A lot of people look up to the Seattle Seahawks to make a difference, and to be on the forward end of, the progressive end of, change.
“I know that we will do everything we can to make as much of a difference as we can.”
This story was originally published June 5, 2020 at 5:40 AM.
