Wilson tuned out his distractions by focusing instead on what he could control, arranging the trip to Hawaii and training with a new speed coach, Ryan Flaherty.
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He was mocked for his insistence-to Rolling Stone and on Twitter-that a recovery water possessing something called “nanobubbles” helped him avoid a concussion following a brutal hit in the NFC championship game.įor a celebrity athlete who keeps suits stashed in his Mercedes-in case, you know, he ever needs a tux on a Wednesday-and swaps his iPhone for a Windows model when he attends Microsoft events, these incidents served to remind Wilson that no matter how carefully you craft your image, you can’t control how you’re perceived. (in July he signed a four-year $87.6 million extension, with more than $61 million guaranteed). He was criticized for his prolonged contract negotiations. Wilson found himself in TMZ’s crosshairs, photographed with a model in Los Angeles. But whereas everything seemed to go so smoothly following the Super Bowl win over Denver, this summer, after the loss to New England, not so much.
The Seahawks’ Hawaiian excursion marked but one stop in Wilson’s endless off-season, in which he started dating a pop star, Ciara, hosted Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Sports Awards and attended a private party at the White House. (Wilson, in an interview last week, dismissed the notion of division, but six people who went on the trip told SI that it existed.) Even on the flight to Hawaii, most of the defense settled in the back of the plane while most of the offense congregated toward the front. This much was evident in the rift that some Seahawks sensed had developed between the offense and defense-no fights or shouting matches or anything like that, but silent tension, an awkwardness to their off-season interactions, the kind of strain that can deepen and wreck even the most promising campaigns.
But Super Bowl XLIX was not a typical defeat, and this was not a typical off-season. Not with a crowd this size or with position groups this varied. NFC West preview: NFL's reigning toughest division has new challengersĪ venture like this year’s-a work-vacation with more than half the team, their wives, their children and support staffs-doesn’t happen in the NFL. Run some routes, break some bread, work on timing. Wilson organizes a similar trip each spring, but in the past he has invited only quarterbacks and pass catchers. “It was: What are you going to fight for? And how are you going to fight for it?” “I brought you guys out here, away from everybody,” Wilson said. And he had saved one final surprise until the end. He had organized this trip, invited the defense and secured a private plane for 85 passengers. Their quarterback, Russell Wilson, stood before them. It was time for what several Seahawks now call a “come to Jesus” meeting, a players-only conference where brutal honesty was expected and everything-including the decisions that led to a crushing defeat in the final seconds of Super Bowl XLIX-was up for discussion. One by one, the players disembarked and moved toward the cliff’s edge, where they formed a circle. The bus turned one final corner and parked near the edge of a cliff, with the beach and the ocean and two breaching whales in the distance. It climbed through a thicket of palm trees, bouncing over uneven terrain, until linebacker Bobby Wagner wondered if they had made a wrong turn into the jungle. The oversized black bus carrying 30 members of the Seahawks drove away from Maui’s Wailea Beach and banked right, up a hill, onto a dirt road. Commercial reproduction, distribution or transmission of any part or parts of this website or any information contained therein by any means whatsoever without the prior written permission of the Club is not permitted.This story appears in the Sept. This website is the only official website of the New England Patriots and is © Copyright New England Patriots (the "Club").