What was behind the rather sudden and surprising trade by the Seahawks of Percy Harvin? Mike Freeman is suggesting that, at least in part, it's racial:
While reports like this one from ESPN's Chris Mortensen suggest Wilson wanted to help Harvin through his anger issues, one Seahawks player said the biggest reason the team traded the wide receiver was his increasing animosity toward [Russell] Wilson. The player said Harvin was an accelerant in a locker room that was quickly dividing between Wilson and anti-Wilson.
Again, people will deny this, but there's truth to it.
The main issue some players seem to have with Wilson is they think he's too close to the front office,
which is the same ridiculous thing some said about McNabb. How anyone could have a problem with Wilson—one of the best players in the sport and one of its best citizens—is unfathomable to me, but that's the case.
There is also a strictly football issue here with Wilson. I'm told he doesn't always take the blame with teammates for mistakes he makes. In Wilson's mind, a bad throw isn't always his fault.
Yet there are other quarterbacks in the NFL who do this—cough, Peyton Manning, cough—and there's no locker room tumult with them.
There is also an element of race that needs to be discussed. My feeling on this—and it's backed up by several interviews with Seahawks players—is that some of the black players think Wilson isn't black enough.
This, again, was similar to the situation with McNabb. And this, again, will be denied by Seattle people. But there is an element of this.
This is an issue that extends outside of football, into African-American society—though it's gotten better recently. Well-spoken blacks are seen by some other blacks as not completely black. Some of this is at play.
Maybe Freeman's right, maybe there's an element of race though bluntly, when a black guy is accused of not being black enough, it's usually more about his politics, his philosophy, his ideology and how those things are quite different from the politics, the philosophy and the ideology of the accuser, than anything to do with his 'blackness'. When you hear that someone's not black enough, it means that someone's culturally not 'down with the struggle', someone who bucks the collectivist trend, someone who denies the power that allegedly comes with playing the victim card.
I don't know, and I don't know that we'll ever know, why anyone would suggest that Russell Wilson isn't black enough. But I do know that Mr. Wilson has been very public about his faith and the impact his faith has had on him and his family and I can tell you that being public about your faith makes you a target, even at times, from people more normally seen to be insiders, part of your organization, even your family.
Here's what Wilson had to say about the Harvin trade:
“In terms of Percy, I wish him nothing but the best. He’s a good football player, a great football player. For whatever reason, it didn’t work here but I pray for him. I pray that he finds peace, I pray that it works for him in New York or wherever else it is. For our football team now, we just have to focus on us and what we can do together and how we can improve as a football team. I know we have great guys, guys that can really make plays and you saw that definitely today. So that’s what we have to look forward to. Like I said, I wish nothing but the best for Percy. He’s a guy from Virginia who I respect.”
If you want to find out a little more about Mr. Wilson, about who he is and what he's about, this video, though long and not just about Wilson, tells a decent story.
Is Russell Wilson black enough? I'll leave that for others to say.
I think him to be someone with his head screwed on straight, or minimally, a man who knows straight from crooked... and that knowledge, to some, can be seriously off-putting.
Maybe that had something to do with the Harvin trade.
Maybe.
