Wilson the Magician, and Fearing the End of the Ride

For nearly the past 10 years, Russell Wilson has held my Sundays in his hand. If he was able to power the Seahawks to victory, I would feel great, homework and the dread of the new week couldn’t bring down my mood. If he and the Hawks lost, my day would be ruined, and I usually spent my Sunday running through all the missed 3rd down attempts we had or stupid penalties we committed in my head. The Seahawks winning meant that I’d be watching RedZone for the rest of the day, and would be listening to a whole slate of football podcasts during the week. A Seahawks loss, and I avoided consuming any NFL content like the plague. With the Seahawks performing as poorly as they have this season, it’s the least football I’ve watched in years. While Wilson’s return to action after an injury that has kept him out of play since week 5 was from stellar, it’s way too early to panic, as the most likely cause for Wilson’s poor play was that he wasn’t 100% and still needs time to get back into his usual rhythm after sustaining the the most severe injury of his professional career. What fills me with a sense of dread is everything surrounding this team over the last couple years.

 Since going to consecutive Super Bowls, Wilson and Co. have failed to make it out of the divisional round, constantly disappointing when the playoffs have come around. The Legion of Boom is long gone, and Pete Carroll has looked more and more like a coach that has allowed the modern game to pass him by. Carroll and general manager Jon Schneider have come under fire for failing to provide Wilson adequate protection, as he is consistently one of the most hit and sacked quarterbacks in the league. Promising regular seasons have been followed by inextricable losses in the playoffs, with the culmination of these disappointing losses coming in last year’s playoffs, where the Seahawks lost to a Rams team quarterbacked by a combination of Jared “I have one working thumb” Goff and backup John Wolford. In the following offseason, Wilson publicly released a list of teams he would be willing to be traded to.

Russell Wilson being sacked during the Seattle Seahawks' 2021 playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams.(Photo by Bettina Hansen/Seattle Times)

Outside of having LeBron James, there is no greater privilege for a sports fan than to have an elite quarterback leading your team. Russell Wilson hasn’t just been elite, he’s been mesmerizing to watch. Works of magic where Wilson slips away from multiple oncoming defenders only to find an open Seahawk downfield have become so commonplace that every time Russell looks like he’s about to be swallowed up in the backfield, I expect him to somehow find a way out. Long gone are the days of middling quarterback play by Matt Hasselbeck and Tavaris Jackson. In their wake, over this past decade, Russell Wilson has made me forget what it’s like to have anything less than a MVP candidate quarterbacking my team.  Now that it looks like Wilson may be on his way out and the days of mediocre Seahawks quarterbacks may be returning, I can barely bring myself to watch Seahawks games. I can never shake the feeling that I’m watching a great band making its last album before splitting up, except that this year has been a far cry from being the Let It Be of Seahawks seasons. There’s nothing I would like more than to be wrong about all this, for Wilson to suit up for the Seahawks for years to come, and for this whole article to be just a fan self-indulging in his own despair. However, if this is the end of my ride with Russell Wilson, then so be it, the bitter taste his departure may leave will never drown out each and every joyful Sunday he’s given me.