Russell Wilson deserves everyone’s respect on his way out the Giants door

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Russell Wilson, at 5-foot-11, was never supposed to have this kind of career as a professional quarterback. Built like a small oak-wood icebox, Wilson always looked more like a second baseman who loved planting his feet, hanging in there on a double play, and daring a charging base runner to take him out.

The Colorado Rockies drafted him to be that kind of middle infielder in 2010. But two years later, the MLB fourth-rounder took his chances as an NFL third-rounder. While making a rookie wage of $390,000 with the Seattle Seahawks, Wilson beat out veteran Matt Flynn, who had just signed for a free-agent guarantee of $10 million.

The rest, as they say, is history, as Wilson needed only two seasons to become the shortest quarterback to ever win a Super Bowl. Nobody under 6 feet had climbed the highest mountain in American sports — winning the biggest game in the biggest league from the most important and glamorous position — and Wilson was one wretched play away from doing it twice.

He took the Vince Lombardi Trophy from 6-5 Peyton Manning in MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, then lost it a year later to 6-4 Tom Brady on a goal-line interception in the Arizona desert. “Two guys that I’ve looked up to since I was a little kid,” Wilson said. Literally and figuratively.

Once upon a time, the quarterback of the New York Giants was a scaled-down titan in the land of giants, the passer who won more NFL games in his first nine seasons (98) than Brady, Manning or any other all-time great. This is a fact worth remembering and celebrating because 36-year-old Russell Wilson might be making the final start of his NFL career Sunday against Dallas, a franchise that has completely dominated the Giants.

Wilson could buy himself a little more time with a throwback performance on the road. He could follow up his alarming loss to Washington in his 200th career regular-season start by going on one last run that holds off Jaxson Dart, the swaggering first-rounder out of Ole Miss who seems as ready to play as Wilson did out of Wisconsin in 2012.

Or Wilson could look old and slow against Dallas and compel his desperate coach, Brian Daboll, to act on his self-preservation instincts while also giving the fans what they apparently want.

“I think that you embrace challenge; I don’t think I’ve run from challenges,” Wilson said Wednesday while wearing his red No. 3 practice jersey. “I don’t think I’ve run from anything.”

No, he hasn’t.

Wilson built a remarkable football life with those nine straight winning seasons out of the gate, including eight with double-digit victories that earned trips to the playoffs. At that point, Wilson was sitting in first class on a direct flight to Canton, Ohio, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

But his last four seasons have sent his legacy sideways and left him as a diminished journeyman. Russ clashed with Pete Carroll in Seattle and got himself traded to Denver, where he was given his own office in the team facility and the freedom to hire his own on-site support staff. Wilson arrived in 2022, saying his goal was to “win three or four more Super Bowls,” then went 11-19 for two coaches over two seasons before getting fired.

Hired by Pittsburgh on the rebound, Wilson lost his final five starts last season, including a first-round playoff game against Baltimore, while he was reportedly at odds with Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. The Giants signed him to a one-year deal for $10.5 million, and only because Aaron Rodgers told them he wasn’t interested in staying local.

The negativity around Wilson wasn’t only about his declining physical skills. His relentless prepackaged positivity — even in the wake of depressing game day results — turned him into something of a punch line. Over the years, he has been cast as a calculating politician, as a distant diva, and as a football star too interested in his Q score. He has been portrayed as a divider, not a unifier, and when former Seattle teammate Marshawn Lynch told Shannon Sharpe about the time he got a call from Wilson with the quarterback’s caller ID blocked, well, Lynch wasn’t the only Seahawk who thought that was vintage Russ.

After a comfortable Seattle victory over the Vikings in 2015, I recall approaching Wilson on his walk to the bus following his postgame news conference for a question I didn’t want the rest of the media to hear. These things are hit or miss, no big deal either way. But Wilson did something I’ve never seen another athlete do. He waved over a PR official, asked the man to inform me that he wasn’t doing one-on-ones on this day, and then reached across the man to give me a fist bump as I started to walk away.

A rejection punctuated by a fist bump that said, Hey, no hard feelings.

Vintage Russ.

Though Wilson might have brought a fair amount of criticism on himself, I’ve always felt that the “inauthentic” label forever attached to him was a bit much. He did win the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award after all. He did win the Bart Starr Award after all.

Phonies don’t win those honors.

Nor do quarterbacks who failed to advance the ball. Wilson was drafted behind the likes of Brandon Weeden and Brock Osweiler, and yet early in his career, he held a 10-0 record against Super Bowl-winning QBs. Wilson is a 10-time Pro Bowler whose career passer rating of 99.5 ranks fifth all-time, ahead of legends such as Brady and Manning.

But as Daboll, Giants fans and the press fuss all over Dart, it seems to everyone not named Russell Carrington Wilson that the end is near.

“For me, personally, my confidence never blinks,” Wilson said. “I’ve been through everything. I’ve been through all the biggest highs there could be. I’ve been through a few lows. But at the same time, I also know my confidence never wavers.”

No matter when he makes his final NFL start, Wilson will leave as one of the sport’s most significant historical figures. He is the second Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl — 26 years after Doug Williams became the first — and he is the first Black quarterback to open a season as the New York Giants’ starter.

It would be awfully nice to see Wilson earn himself a home start at MetLife, where he won the Super Bowl, by ending the Cowboys’ eight-game winning streak over the Giants.

Before a helluva football player says goodbye, it would be awfully nice to let Russ cook one last time.

(Photo: Jess Rapfogel / Getty Images)

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