Russell Wilson had a rivalry with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick at one point when he was with the Seattle Seahawks, but the current Pittsburgh Steelers signal-caller had high praise for Kaepernick in a recent interview.
Russell Wilson spoke about opening doors
Wison spoke about the evolution of black quarterbacks in the NFL. He said winning a Super Bowl helped open up doors for quarterback Patrick Mahomes to go and win more with the Kansas City Chiefs:
“For me to be able to go to back-to-back Super Bowls, and win one of them, I think opened up a lot of doors,” he says. “Now you see guys like Patrick Mahomes who won it; it’s really just us so far, but there’s more to come…
“What I love to see is guys getting drafted early, and that a lot of teams these days have Black quarterbacks playing for them,” Wilson says. “It’s all across the league, and it’s showing how the National Football League is starting to evolve, change and break down barriers. I think one of the biggest blessings of my career so far is that I’ve been fortunate to be able to open up doors for others, because of what others did for me.”
Shannon Sharpe took offense to Wilson’s comments
Wilson’s comments didn’t sit right with former tight end Shannon Sharpe. Per a transcription of Sharpe’s comments on his podcast by Sports Illustrated, Sharpe suggested Wilson was being shortsighted about his role in opening doors:
“So what role did Doug Williams play? The first African-American quarterback to actually get to and win the Super Bowl and win MVP,” Sharpe said to his co-host Chad Johnson. “So what about Shack Harris? What about Joe Gilliam? So what did Marlin Briscoe did? Jack Harry? Steve McNair? They opened no doors? Donovan McNabb, Michael Vick? It was you?”
Wilson is grateful for former San Francisco 49ers’ Colin Kaepernick
But Sharpre glossed over the credit Wilson gave former quarterbacks and those who played in the NFL when Wilson was young in the league. As Wilson highlighted in a post on X, he did refer to Doug Williams. He said he was grateful for Kaepernick playing with him in the league:
I think about those guys before me,” he says. “But when I came into the league, there were only a few of us. It was Cam Newton, Robert Griffin III, Colin Kaepernick, myself and a couple others.”
Let’s start building each other up!!!
The Evolution of Black QBs in the @NFL has been one of the coolest experiences in my life to be a part of.
Full context is always important!
Grateful for those before me.
Those with me.
And those after.God is Good! pic.twitter.com/rQpKUR25Ol
— Russell Wilson (@DangeRussWilson) April 13, 2024
Kaepernick actually made it to the Super Bowl one year before Wilson did. Kaepernick led the 49ers to a Super Bowl loss against the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII. Wilson knows that history and is thankful Kaepernick helped open the doors for Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, and others.
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14 Comments
Randall Cunningham? Vince Young? Michael Vick? Glaze. Don’t give Kaap the credit he doesn’t deserve.
Russell Wilson your playing days are just about over as well. Your sorry opinion carries no weight. Kaepernick is a washed up troublemaker.
It’s not about color, it’s about skill set or should be, people using the color of one’s skin are racist ! If you have it, earn it you own it regardless of you color
Question
If your hLf white half black then why do they always revert to being black? Aren’t they equally white, now that’s playing the race card.
First off if u had the experience of an ethnic minority in America you would realize that speaking about this in the context of race is only relevant because of the barriers presented to blacks by whites. Also you don’t understand that when you are half black in America you are black not white. That is just a fact.That is how you are received. It would be completely ignorant for someone to not know the history and think solely merit will win the day. For example, after Jack Johnson became the first black heavyweight champion no black fighter was given a title fight until Joe Louis 15 years later. Jackie Robinson was picked to be the firs tmostly because he wasn’t the best. It’s really sad how much history is concealed by America and how disinterested whites are about knowing the truth.
Kap? Wow! Talk about just saying something to grab a headline… Kap did very little to nothing to evolve the black QB. It’s sad when another NFL QB has to always resort to race to grab a headline. I’m sorry but Vick, Cunningham, Culpepper, etc, did far more to evolve the game for black QB’s and if Wilson can’t see that, he’s just blind like the rest of the folks that bow to the media
Is Wilson’s need to be viewwd as a woke social justice warrior so great, and his knowledge of the history of black quarterbacks in the NFL so small that he completely bypassed Fitz Pollard, Willie Thrower and Doug Williams?
It’s unfathomable that Wilson could be that stupid and the interviewer could let that go by.
Can’t stand for country Flag
So is Russell Wilson really that slow?
Cunningham, Vick, McNair. Wow, what a dumb article.
Shannon Sharpe said exactly what I was thinking. DOUG WILLIAMS!!!! DUH??? MICHAEL VICK was the TOTAL PACKAGE COMBO SKILLED QUARTERBACK. What is Russell Wilson thinking about. Kaepernick taking a knee in rebellion to make a social statement “WHILE ON HIS “JOB” was ill ADVISED. Stand for something by using one personal profile as a PLATFORM for whatever causes you represent. That’s HOW it’s done. PEACE 🙏💯
Those 7 comments pretty much tell the story. Skill and brains make a successful athlete, not color. Colin was only given one of the two…the one that was missing pretty much ruined his career. Wilson seems to be leaning the same way in this article. Wow!
Wilson is half black, half American Indian, and so that makes him “black?” Kap is half black, half white, and so this makes him “black?”
Article is B.S. and so is Wilson’s comments. Ignorant and racist, too.
Can’t stand for country Flag
Did some of you folks forget the united states was built on murder bigotry, racism and slavery? Why do you some of you people care who stands or doesn’t stand for a flag in a country where police are Gestapo in nature and selective about who they murder during traffic stops? What’s up with all this bizarre idolatry over a flag? Why is it important No other group of people worships the U.S. flag. It’s called idolatry.
Some of these commenters on here remind of those idiots who falsely think they own the United States. The ones who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6th 2021.