Russ, high knees and a plane old hilarious scene

I’m not sure if it’s hypocritical to mock Russel Wilson for the exact type of behavior that used to be cited as a reason for his success, but it sure as hell doesn’t make any sense.

There wasn’t anything wrong with what Russell Wilson said. And while you can question his wisdom in speaking it aloud, it’s hard for me to blame him for talking about his in-flight stretching because I’ve been listening to him say stuff like this for the past 10 years without doing much more than subtly rolling my eyes.

“What was it an eight-hour flight here? First two hours I was watching the film. Watching all the cut-ups and everything else. For the next four hours, I was doing treatment on the plane. I was walking up and down the aisles. Everybody was knocked out. I was doing high-knees and working on my legs and everything else. Making sure I’m ready to rock so that was good. And the last hour of that, I fell asleep for one hour and then I watched the film the rest.”

— Russell Wilson, October 26

So maybe I’m partly responsible for Wilson becoming the butt of a thousand memes on Wednesday. If I had been more skeptical of how willing he was to explain just how hard he worked, perhaps he would be a little less willing to walk headlong into the jokes when he talked about how he’d used the 8 hours of his team’s flight to London for Sunday’s game.

Shooter McGavin @ShooterMcGavin_

Russell Wilson running up and down the aisle on the team flight to London

Molly @FSUmollz

Russell Wilson in the aisle of the plane for four (4) hours

NFL Memes @NFL_Memes

Russell Wilson in the aisle while his teammates are sleeping on the flight to London

It’s funny. I laughed. I also think it’s largely harmless and there’s nothing more complicated here than the reality that it’s what you do on the field that determines how people see the things you do off the field.

For 10 years, Wilson was seen as one of the very best quarterbacks in the league so no one harped on the fact that there were times he behaved like an adult who still mentions his SAT score. Now, that he’s on a new a team and clearly struggling, that kind of stuff is getting him roasted, and if there is a deeper point to be found here, it’s not about Wilson or his authenticity. It relates to the utterly superficial nature of the implications and conclusions of the modern sports-media critique. I’m not sure if it’s hypocritical that Wilson is now being mocked for the exact type of behavior that used to be cited as a reason for his success, but it sure as hell doesn’t make any sense.

I’ll give you an example.