Seahawks K.J. Wright on George Floyd killing: ‘It’s time for uncomfortable conversations’
The longest-tenured Seahawk is the same as Russell Wilson, Bobby Wagner, Duane Brown, Quandre Diggs, Tyler Lockett and much of America is right now.
Devastated. Enraged. Fed up.
“My heart has been heavy the past few days,” K.J. Wright said Wednesday night in a posting on his Instragram account a week after the death of George Floyd after he was pressed under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer on his neck.
“I’ve cried, felt confusion, sadness didn’t know what to do or say,” Wright said. “And anyone that knows me knows that when I see a problem it’s gonna be my LIFE MISSION to fix it.
“Enough has been enough. It’s for uncomfortable conversations, for people to get out their bubble, laws need to be changed, mindsets need to be shifted and about all MORE LOVE needs to be spread. We all have a platform, let’s do our part in making this country better #blacklivesmatter”
Wright is the latest prominent Seahawk to speak out against social inequality and police brutality in the aftermath of Floyd’s death. The national outrage over Floyd’s death, the protests and confrontations with police in major urban centers, some highly publicized looting by rioters trying to take advantage of the peaceful protests have spurred Brown, Diggs, Lockett, Metcalf, Wagner and Wilson to speak up within and outside the Seahawks’ daily online meetings.
When he spoke to reporters on an online Zoom call Wednesday, Wilson was more impassioned, more direct and real, than Seattle has seen him in his eight years as the Seahawks’ quarterback.
“To be honest with you, I don’t even want to talk to you about football right now. None of that matters,” Wilson said.
“The reality is black people are being murdered in the street. They are getting shot down. The reality is, it’s not like that for any other race.
“It’s staggering to see.”
Wilson is the face of the franchise.
Wright is its sage.
He’s been on the Seahawks’ daily team Zoom calls this week that were supposed to be about football but have instead been sessions led by the players talking about Floyd’s death and race in our country. They’ve vented, shared thoughts and—in the case of the 20 white players on the Seahawks’ 90-man offseason roster—learned.
“Our white teammates have stepped up,” Wilson said, calling that development “powerful.”
Wright has been a leader in those discussions.
When he talks, Seahawks listen.
Wright’s been here from almost the very start of players-first coach Pete Carroll’s tenure leading Seattle. Carroll has for 10 years populated the team with veterans who speak out for social activism, racial equality and police reform. That was even before Richard Sherman and Michael Bennett became controversial names nationally in the mid 2010s.
Wright turns 31 next month. Carroll and Seattle drafted him in 2011. The Seahawks are the only NFL team for which the native of Olive Branch, Miss., has played. He’s won a Super Bowl. He’s been a Pro Bowl selection at outside linebacker. He’s been a mainstay next to All-Pro middle linebacker Bobby Wagner on Seattle’s defense. In 2018 he was the Seahawks’ nominee for the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.
That nomination was, in part, for Wright donating money to provide clean water to towns in the Maasai Mara region of Kenya, after visiting the African country one offseason. He brought books on his trip, and helped teach English to children there.
Each well costs about $20,000 to install for the village to provide clean water. Wright built two.
Back home—and Seattle is where he says he wants to stay and live well after he’s done playing football—he builds houses for the homeless in south Seattle. Wright got involved a couple of years ago with the Sawhorse Revolution, which began in 2010 as a summer carpentry camp for children on a farm north of Arlington in Snohomish County north of Everett.
“They’re tiny homes. They’ll be in south Seattle,” Wright said in 2018. “We went in there just cutting wood and laying the foundation on the floor and building the roofs. We just really wanted to help.
“I met them when they came out to practice (at Seahawks headquarters in Renton), so I made that connection and just stuck with it.”
Wright has joined former Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril on Avril’s annual trips to Haiti; he is helping build a school there in La Chanm. Wright coached a youth football camp in Port-au-Prince. He is a mentor for Carolina Panthers and former Seahawks left tackle Russell Okung’s Future Leaders program, working with inner-city kids to help them learn basics of entrepreneurship and technology to tackle problems in their communities. Wright is also a mentor for Seattle-area youth through Rainier Athletes, a local program that seeks to motivate students to achieve, and through the NFL’s Character Playbook teaching Seattle-area middle-school students how to build healthy relationships and make good decisions.
So, yeah, Wright doesn’t do much other than play football.
That’s why his words on the state of our country carry added weight.
The question he and many in support of Black Lives Matter demand to know is: are we listening?
This story was originally published June 4, 2020 at 5:35 AM.
