Russell Wilson wanted a celebration. He left Seattle with jeers, and a loss.
SEATTLE — In a shiny mint suit and black bow tie, Russell Wilson was overdressed for this awkward affair. He looked like he was going to a gala, with his sparkling shirt studs and patent leather shoes, instead of a contentious homecoming. If Wilson expected a celebration when he packed that outfit, he ended Monday night with a more subdued state of mind.
The Denver Broncos quarterback, playing his first game with his new team in the city he just departed six months ago, experienced a sound he’d never had directed toward him at Lumen Field. Booooooo! He listened to fans compare him to Alex Rodriguez, orchestrator of Seattle’s most bitter superstar departure, who took a $252 million deal from the Texas Rangers more than two decades ago. The old signs of “Let Russ Cook” had been revised to read “Let’s Cook Russ.” Through it all, he played with admirable focus, dissecting the Seattle Seahawks for 340 passing yards. At the end, it was the five yards he wasn’t allowed to go after that dominated the conversation.
At the end, Wilson watched from the sideline as Brandon McManus attempted a 64-yard field goal with a victory at stake. McManus missed. The Seahawks prevailed, 17-16, over Wilson and over the assumption that life after Wilson is guaranteed to be dreadful. A crowd of 68,965 erupted in chants of “Geno! Geno!” for Wilson’s old understudy, Geno Smith, who just resurrected his career at 31 after spending eight years as a backup.
Nevertheless, Wilson called the night “special.” Considering how it played out, the most apt descriptions were bizarre and troublesome. A single game, even one this wacky, won’t define Denver’s season unless the Broncos let it. That said, they’ll need to work quickly to smooth over such a perplexing defeat.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/13/russell-wilson-seahawks-broncos/
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