Russell Wilson, like a long line of nationally recognized professional athletes before him, has redefined boring when it comes to public comments on any topic, sports-related or otherwise. So it's with some surprise (OK, we were floored) that Wilson fired up Facebook Live to talk about the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump.
That's right: The man who avoids controversy like Brock Osweiler avoids completions has some thoughts on the first few days of Trump's presidency, which included a controversial executive order related to immigration and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries. The order sparked protests at airports across the country, and presumably prompted Wilson to speak up.
The video, which is titled "Barbershop Talk Season 2," is below. Wilson's political commentary starts around the 9:40 mark:
"...Just so you know, I voted for Hillary [Clinton]," Wilson said in the video. "But, when you think about it's only been, what, two weeks ... We've got to attack this issue here. Basically, I think that when you think about all the negativity that's happened within a 10-day period, or however many days it's been, it's already too much. It's already crazy, it's already affecting people's hearts and souls and lives in such a negative way, in my opinion.
"Now you kind of recognize that people's feelings are getting hurt, people's lives getting changed, people are getting sent back or not let in back home to see their families for reasons that may not be worthy. Just because you believe in something or you're from a certain place doesn't mean that you're a bad person."
"We go to the LAX airport and there's people all over the place fighting for their lives and protesting and all the protests that have gone on ... through the African-American community, through obviously the Muslim community, too. We're gonna be a nation that says we're equal, we have to be equal. Obviously being smart of all that kind of stuff, but you also have to be able to treat people fairly, you have to be able to love everyone. I know even from my own faith, my Christian faith, we still have to love everybody."
Wilson continued: "I don't even know if he's going to be able to last four years, in my opinion. You don't want to wish bad upon anybody because if he doesn't last four years, that means that something went wrong, so hopefully nothing goes wrong, anymore that it's already doing. But it's just been a crazy 10 days already. And, you know, Barack! Comeback. Come back, Barack! Come back, Barack!"
Earlier this week, Steelers offensive lineman Ryan Harris, who is Muslim, called Trump's immigration ban "from the playbook of hatred and divisiveness."
