Ever since he marched the Seattle Seahawks to a Super Bowl victory, Russell Wilson's been blowing up. His performance let him appear on The Late Show with David Letterman and hang with Jay-Z at a Nets game ... on the same night.
He's so big he even got be featured as the "Newsmaker" on CBS Sports Network's ROME Thursday night. Russell, as usual, didn't go hog wild with the quotables. But he did have an interesting response when Jim Rome asked him if he wanted the Seahawks to open up the offense more and give him "more responsibility."
"I have a lot of responsibility already. I have a ton of checks at the line of scrimmage from run to pass and pass to run," Wilson said. "I think for our team we try to play a very, very physical game. Some teams play to their talents, which is five wide receivers and throw the ball the whole game and spread everyone out. We have great receivers plus a great running back. We arguably have the best running back in the National Football League and he's so physical. Our backup running back could easily be a starter on any team as well. To have guys like that with a physical running game and a great play action game and deep ball game ... and then when we want to go empty and spread everyone out we can do that as well.
"I think that versatility really puts pressure on the defense and takes a lot of time off the clock too and does a lot of different things for us. On top of that we have a great defense too and that is a huge advantage for the Seattle Seahawks."
Asked about his decision to play football over baseball, Wilson also really touched -- once again -- on his departure from NC State. After the Super Bowl he used the phrase "moved on" with respect to NC State not bringing him back.
He echoed that when talking to Rome.
"I had a tremendous opportunity to play football and baseball at NC State. I went to NC State to play both and I graduated in three years. I went to grad school for a year at NC State and I loved NC State. I got drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the fourth round and it was a great opportunity. I went to play two sports and I signed a two sport deal and NC State decided to move on," Wilson said. "So I had to figure out where I wanted to go to school and if I was going to play football or not. I just continued to pray about it every morning and every night. And God told me, 'be unique, be uncommon.' For me as a 5'11" quarterback it is uncommon. You've go to be special in certain areas. You've got to be a great leader and have great attention to detail and be a relentless competitor. That's what I try to bring to the table every Sunday for the Seattle Seahawks.
"I took a chance, I took a major risk. Everyone was telling me I was a prototypical second baseman for the major leagues but I kind of went against the odds a little bit."
The Seahawks went against the odds by beating the Broncos and they shattered the odds when they beat the Broncos 43-8. No one expected that kind of victory. Not even Wilson.
"Not quite that big," Wilson said of the margin of victory. "The Denver Broncos are a very, very good football team with an unbelievable quarterback in Peyton Manning. Our defense played exceptionally well but I did expect us to play our A-plus game. I knew that we were going to be ready the way we prepared the last two weeks before the game was unbelievable. I knew we were ready for that moment despite how young we were, I knew we had the right guys, the right leadership, the right coaches and the best fans in the National Football League."
