Russell Wilson is the same. It's the winning that has changed | Zero Blitz
Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz reacts to the Denver quarterback’s comments about staying with the Broncos and winning two more Super Bowls - and how it’s par for the course for Wilson in his career. Hear the full conversation on the “Zero Blitz” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
JASON FITZ: Everybody's heard Russell Wilson. He made it clear on Brandon Marshall's show that he intends to stay. Or he would love to stay in Denver. That's what he wants. He also told you he's going to win two championships in the next five years. All the things that Russ says. And it leaves us wondering, well, what does Russ know? What is Russ trying to accomplish? What does Russ think is next?
Maybe, just maybe, we need to take all of this for face value to what it is. And it's just Russ being Russ. Now I know we are in this world where athletes want to come out and control their narrative. And we love that. We love it when athletes go on different shows and they basically drill down on what they want, because it gives us straight from their mouths what they think their future looks like.
But not every athlete in my mind, is prepared to be real. It takes something raw from the interviewer and from the interviewee. Was that this for Russ? Do we really think that Russell Wilson came into this and said, you know what? America, I'm going to speak my truth. It's going to be authentic. And I'm going to be real with you.
What's he say, when you break down what he says? He wants to stay in Denver. Well, people in hell want ice water. Also, is he going to turn around and say, I don't want to be here. That doesn't serve anybody in this process, especially when you're somebody who's worried about image as Russ is.
Then he says, I want to win two championships in the next five years. Again, what else is he going t? Say, man, I hope I just don't suck. That's not real. One thing about quarterbacks that I find particularly interesting is that they always know the right thing to say at the right time. It's like they're coached to that from the time they're 10 years old. Never really answer a question. Always make sure that you're giving everybody else the credit and taking all of the blame, all of the cliches.
And isn't that what Russ is at this point? He's a cliche. When I heard what Russ said, I didn't react at all. My surprise isn't to what Russ said, my surprise is that we're trying to turn it into a story. Because all Russell Wilson did is what Russell Wilson does every single time.
He doesn't tell you the truth. He tells you what he thinks you want to hear. He tells you what makes him feel good. He wants to be a feel good story. Now, we love that when you're winning. You win, you can be cheesy. You win, you can be vapid. You can be empty. You can be all of those things. You win football games, nobody cares.
What Russ is doing right now is the same thing he's done his whole career. And we should have been rolling our eyes to it the entire time. We didn't early on, because Seattle won football games. Now with the Broncos, it sucks. It doesn't look like Russ has a real future starting in the NFL. It doesn't look like the Broncos have an easy path to get out of the money that they spent.
So now what you have are two people that are going to get divorced, but they're living in the same house. But the one thing Russ is forgetting is that he does have blame for one thing, not being good enough anymore. And as long as he's not good enough, then all we're going to do is roll our eyes and laugh at every ounce of what he has to say about this situation.