Seahawks’ Russell Wilson has won 1 of 6 starts since losing ‘my best friend’ Trevor Moawad
This lost season, Russell Wilson has had finger surgery. He’s had the first missed games of his career.
He’s had first time getting shut out in a game. The first-three game losing streak of his career. And, it appears, only the second non-playoff season in his 10 years as the Seahawks quarterback.
What he hasn’t had: Trevor Moawad.
“Having a great friend like Trevor, and cancer, it’s the worst,” Wilson said Thursday.
“The worst.”
Amid what Wilson Monday night called “a storm” — intense scrutiny and criticism of him and of Seattle sinking to 3-8 following his team’s latest loss at Washington — the 33-year-old franchise cornerstone has lost his bedrock.
“My best friend,” Wilson said in September.
He said that the day Moawad, Wilson’s mental-conditioning expert from Lakewood and Charles Wright Academy, died after years of fighting cancer.
He was 48.
Since Mowad’s death Wilson has won just one game in six starts. That lone victory was Oct. 3 at San Francisco (6-5), the Seahawks’ opponent on Sunday at Lumen Field.
Seattle’s game with the 49ers two months ago made Wilson the fastest quarterback to 100 wins. Wilson got to 100 career victories in the fourth game of his 10th season. Peyton Manning is the only other QB to win 100 games in 10 years. Manning did in in the 10th game of his 10th season.
Wilson still has 100 wins. The winningest quarterback in Seattle history hasn’t won a game in more than two months. He’s missed the first three games of his career. That was after 165 consecutive starts, the sixth-longest streak in league history. He had surgery Oct. 8 to repair a torn tendon and broken bones in the middle finger on his throwing hand.
In his three games since his return in half the time his surgeon told him he might miss, he’s been way off on throws he normally completes easily. He’s misread his receivers, including Tyler Lockett, with whom he normally has an innate sense of where to go with the ball.
“The film doesn’t lie,” coach Pete Carroll said somewhat candidly after Seattle’s loss at Washington, “and we’re missing some stuff. ...
“I don’t know what to make of it, other than the fact we got to keep battling and keep trying to figure it out.”
Asked Thursday how Moawad’s death has affected him during what’s been his worst NFL year, Wilson focused on what Moawad taught him to focus on.
The positive.
“Trev has been a critical part in my life for 10, 11 years,” Wilson said. “Has it affected me? It’s encouraged me. It hasn’t affected me in a negative way.
“It’s encouraged me knowing that, number one, when I met Trevor Moawad I was at IMG (Performance Institute) and I had dreams. I had goals. I had passion, and I had something I wanted to do, something I believed in.
“Not many people believed I could do it. And he was one of those people that believed in me.”
“My focus never wavers”
Early in 2012, Wilson had just led Wisconsin to the Rose Bowl. His agent, Mark Rodgers, got Wilson aligned with the IMG draft-preparation academy, to prepare for the draft.
Wilson was a winner at North Carolina State and his one season at Wisconsin. But NFL teams doubted he would flourish in their league because he was only 5 feet, 11 inches tall. He was shorter than the John Elway, Tom Brady, Manning prototype for championship quarterbacks.
Wilson arrived onto the IMG campus in Bradenton, Florida, in early 2012. One of the first people he met was Moawad.
It wasn’t a one-time meeting.
It became a lifetime bond.
“I would spend three hours in the morning with him, and then in the afternoon go to dinner, whatever it may be, two hours, three hours, talk,” Wilson said. “Just picked his brain and learned as much as I could possibly learn.
“Trev used to always talk about, ‘Continue to feed your focus. Continue to feed your focus.’
“My focus never wavers.”
Wilson said the same thing just past midnight into Tuesday morning this week in suburban D.C.. That was after he showed some of his usual play rallying the Seahawks to within 17-15 of Washington with 15 seconds left. Then he threw his third interception into the end zone in three games, on the decisive two-point conversion try.
With wet, reddened eyes after addressing his teammates in the locker room Monday night, Wilson said the losing wouldn’t deter him, that he would focus on succeeding over the final six games of the season.
Losing Moawad — far more real than losing football games — isn’t deterring Wilson, either.
“One of the things I really believe in is, in the midst of losing loved ones, in the midst of losing people you really care about, losing a friend like Trevor, there’s always growth and learning there,” he said. “There’s a time and a place for everything.
“Not everything always lasts.”
Including, he firmly believes, losing football games.
“I am an overcomer”
Wilson said the lessons he’s learned from Moawad remain. Neutral thinking. And an appreciation for now.
No matter what now looks or feels like.
“What I’ve also learned is, every day you have to cherish. Every day you have to cherish,” Wilson said. “He was so young, so talented, so brilliant. We were able to do business together, able to do so many great things together.
“But I think one thing you realize is that it can be any of us. It can be any of us that go. It could be you. It could be me. It could be somebody we know, somebody we love. It could be someone we’ve lost already.
“Life has a timeline. To be able to bring joy to everything you do, to have gratitude, I think that’s where you find that peace and that energy and that gratefulness, great friends.
“I miss him to death. ...He was just an amazing man, an amazing person.”
During this Seahawks losing streak, Wilson is listening to the audio version of Moawad’s book, “Getting to Neutral: How to Conquer Negativity and Thrive in a Chaotic World.“ It is to be published in late January. Wilson’s wife Ciara wrote the foreword to the book.
The book includes Moawad detailing how he dealt with his cancer with the “neutral thinking.” It’s the principle to which Wilson adheres most, to maintain what he believes is his biggest advantage: a constantly clear, positive mind.
“It’s interesting going back, hearing everything. It’s pretty surreal,” Wilson said of his mentor’s book detailing his fight with cancer.
Wilson now continues the mental conditioning he did daily with Moawad on his own, and with Tim Grover, a former trainer for Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.
“So all my mindset, I’m locked in. I’m zoned in, ready to play,” Wilson said.
“The energy’s great. I feel great.
“The one thing I do know is that my resume shows that I am an overcomer.
“The reality is that, for me, I know what’s going to happen. I know every time there is adversity, there is something great on the other side of it.
“The one thing I always do is believe.”
This story was originally published December 2, 2021 at 4:46 PM.
