America has a new Dream Team – The Seattle Seahawks. “Bigger than Life itself” events like The Super Bowl have a spotlight that bores like Goldfinger’s laser beam on anyone who emerges out of said event. Heroes and anti-heroes alike….
….. and The Great Unwashed place them upon pedestals like Mayan pyramids from which they can eventually sacrifice them in their celebrity blood-lust. Be careful Russell Wilson… it’s your turn…..
I like straight-forward Jack Armstrong “All-American boys”. I like “good guys” who drink milk and say “Yes Ma’m” and slay dragons to save fair maidens. I think I know enough about Russell Wilson to say, with complete assurance, Russell Wilson IS “my kinda guy”.
That is why, as he now enters a whole new level of Celebrity, I worry for Russell Wilson.
At one point, not too long ago, just folks in Richmond knew about, and liked, Russell. Then Wolfpack fans met Russell and they liked him too. Russell is/was such a gosh darn “good guy” that even NC State rival fans liked him, albeit begrudgingly.
He even navigated that “weird dust-up with Tom O’Brien” and came away with no lasting scars.
Asheville Tourists baseball fans met him and liked him. His “yellow brick road” took him to Madison Wisconsin for a year and they really liked him….. then, as yellow brick roads do, he came to The Emerald City of Seattle and, by golly, sho’nuff, they liked him from the get-go.
He emerged from among more heralded QB contemporaries to become well-known and, well-liked, among NFL fans. Whats NOT to like about Russell Wilson? But now…..
On the biggest of all sports / entertainment stages….. in “The Game” that transcends ESPN. “The Game” that your Aunt Clara watches and she don’t know a deep snapper from Bruno Mars. In fact she never heard of Bruno Mars. I confess I never heard of Bruno six months ago and still don’t know a single song he sings. He IS “a singer” isn’t he?
“The Game – The Event” that The NFL and Madison Avenue collaborate on each year to sell you beer, trucks, new movies, and more beer and more cars and trucks. The Event that reminds America each year “what’s a Clydesdale?”.
Every time a new personality emerges on America’s celebrity stage like Venus On A Clamshell, we say “he/she is different from _______ because”. The obvious comparison for Russell Wilson is Tim Tebow…. or, to a degree, Danica Patrick.
“No No No Pierce” you say. Russell is “different” because (1) he’s not ‘a white guy’ (BHO having declared “white” the new “yucky”?) and (2) he’s not so black that he scares white folks; and (3) he’s doesn’t flaunt his Faith (don’t be too sure about that!) and (4) unlike Danica, he’s now a BIG winner. And (5) He’s not a Manning and America is Manninged-out right now. Peyton and Family will be just fine in case you are worried.
True enough and all those points will serve Russell well in the months to come. It will be harder to “chew him up in little bitty pieces and spit him out” but “they” will try. It’s Who they are…. it’s WHAT they do.
The Great Unwashed will be all over Russell like Lilliputians on Gulliver. He’s the newest bright shiny gee gaw. They will poke and pry and peek and pry some more. His politics… his sex life…. his lifestyle…. his opinions about ____ .
In Russell’s favor he is waaaay over yonder in Seattle which is closer to Wasilla Alaska than it is to Manhattan and DC. To most “low information voters (LIVs)” Seattle means Starbucks and rain and that tall “needle thing”. Most LIVs don’t know Bill Gates live there.
Count on Russell doing all the talk shows of course. And, GUARAN-Damn-TEED, a certain former community organizer will glom on to him Big Time. Russell In The Rose Garden is a given….. Russell with BHO and Jay-Z and Beyonce and all the hippity hoppin’ rappers and Obama’s muslim buddies, et al….. BUT will Russell feel a bit queasy hobnobbing with that crowd ??? Russell on The Red Carpet ??
He will be polite for sure as he should be…. but will he embrace “that crowd”? If he doesn’t; you know what “they” will say…… It may take a few weeks or a few months but “Is Russell Wilson black enough?” is a headline that has already been written for release when needed?
You know RGIII is glad the satellite trucks have left his front yard and headed to the Great Northwest.
How long will the media maggots and the green flies and the hyenas aka “the pedestal-tippers” just let “Russell be Russell”?
History says “not very long”. …… sigh, sob, sniff.
