Russell Wilson needs to fire whoever is asking him to make fake, corny TikToks

Russ has never been cool, but these vids have made him insufferable.

So much has changed about Russell Wilson since the end of the 2021 season. Obviously, the big element that people are trying to determine is why his performance is suffering at career-lows with no appreciable signs of improvement, but there’s something else going on with Russ that, frankly, puts me off much more.

Wilson has never been “cool.” There are cool athletes, and there are nerds — with neither being a predictor of success. When it comes to quarterbacks you’ve got Joe Burrow, he’s cool. Lamar Jackson, also cool. In the past you had Kenny Stabler, the paragon of cool. Meanwhile Patrick Mahomes: Nerd. Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck — huge nerds.

All these guys have one thing in common, regardless of where they fall on the spectrum: They’re authentic. They don’t compromise themselves in service of things like “marketability” or “brand building.” I think that’s perhaps what I’m noticing about Russ now that just feels so fake, so off, and so cringe-worthy. Russ was never cool, but this is the first time he’s truly become a dork.

We’re less than two months into the season and the amount of cringe-worthy Wilson attempts at social media videos are off the charts. Most of the time these are simple influencer videos, but whoever is giving him direction on these (assuming anyone is) deserves to be fired.

There is no real personality, no sign of Russ in them at all. We’re left with a vapid, boring attempt at a persona that was cooked up by a focus group in a sad, dimly-lit room.

Everything Wilson is doing feels so contrived and self-aware. Hell, ahead of Broncos vs. Chargers on Monday Night Football we got this.

I think this is actually really telling, but not in any intentional way. Russ starts by introducing himself as “Typical boring Russell, robot Russell” — but with a constant undercurrent of absolutely not believing what he’s saying. I’m not saying Russ should think he’s a robot, but nobody is really calling him a robot. Nobody has ever called him a robot, but rather that he’s just a dork.

Make no mistake, there’s a fundamental difference between a nerd and a dork. The nerd has a very specific suite of interests and invests their time and energy into them, and sure, this can lead to some dorkish elements. A dork, by nature, doesn’t necessarily have this granularity for their passions, and instead just comes off as socially inept.

Which is why it’s so off-putting when Russ talks about the need to have an alter-ego, a persona to hide who he is. In this case Russ’ is someone called “Mr. Unlimited,” and I don’t know what his traits are, but I know I want Mr. Unlimited to die. Or, I would, if I believed he existed. See, this, like so many of Russ’ phony videos, isn’t believable for a second. His self-depreciation is bad acting, talking about this alter-ego is hollow. It feels like a manager sent him an email a night before that said “Russ, we need a video for social tomorrow to increase engagement” and so he came up with this on the fly, and he’s not a naturally creative person off the football field.

While it’s fun to laugh at Russ for all this corniness, I think it’s really sad. Everything he’s doing this season, on and off the field, feels unnatural, and we know this because we have some glimpses of him being real when he’s asked a pointed question at a press conference and forced to act in the moment, and the real Russ is totally fine. Look at when he was asked about Eli Manning throwing a barb in the Manningcast about how Wilson is getting paid too much for his production.

I believe with all my heart that your personal life impacts your work, and vice versa. Especially in any job that requires you to perform at a high level. Obviously the stakes as an internet writer are far less than the starting franchise quarterback of an NFL team, but from experience I know that when I have immense external pressure or I’m stressing about my personal life, I can’t work as freely, creatively, or at the same level as when I have my house in order.

Right now, Russ feels like a guy whose personal life isn’t in his own hands. Like he’s turned it over to a brand manager who’s cracking the whip and forcing him to share more than he’s comfortable with. Sure, it’s a little armchair therapist of me, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s bleeding into his play. The struggles, the criticism, the times he looks like a shadow of himself — it all echoes the hollowness he’s been putting out on social media this season.

Russell Wilson hasn’t forgotten how to play football, but I do think he’s lost sight of himself.