PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers offense has been under fire throughout the preseason, and maybe no one has gotten hit with more criticism than Russell Wilson. But the starting quarterback isn’t worried about it, and in fact, isn’t paying attention.
Wilson has received criticism from every direction, whether it’s the fanbase or the media. Some have been more aggressive than others, like Stephen A. Smith explaining to Wilson on ESPN why he “pissed him off.”
Speaking with media, though, Wilson expressed how he’s never really paid attention to the hate. And this season, nothing is different.
“I never had it to keep me going,” Wilson said. “I’ve never been — I don’t know why — I’ve just never been worried about what other people think. I think ultimately I focus on, as I mentioned to you guys — obviously my faith means everything to me. God chose me for this, and He chose me to play this game. I’m one of 32 men in the world that get to do what I do, get to play this game every day. And you know, there’s eight billion people in the world, and for whatever reason, I get to be one of these guys. You know, I’m fortunate guys get to do this and walk into these white lines. And so, I always have to have great faith and just great belief. And so that’s just kind of in my spirit of me every day.
“And so for me, I don’t really focus on the outside part of it, I just focus on what God put in the inside and in terms of who he chose me to be, and just focus on that part of it. And then work your butt off every day. You know, this is the part where you just work on the fundamentals. You work on your craft. You’re obsessed with it. You’re obsessed with learning, that part of it, and that’s the part that makes it great.”
While Wilson has been under a microscope for most of his career, and had plenty of harsh comments come his way, there’s a lot of attention currently on the Steelers preseason.
Wilson isn’t worried.
“First of all, it’s the preseason,” Wilson said. “I think there are always highs, there’s some things that we’ve done really well. There’s some things we need to be better at. That’s a part of the preseason. You learn things and you translate that to the practice field, as well.
“Somebody asked me if we were concerned right now. Absolutely not. The reason being because the level practices we’ve had against one of the best defenses every day. How we’ve shown up there. The best thing we can do is just slow our minds down and play really clean football, and just enjoy the process. There is going to be a time during the season where it is going to be the first quarter and we didn’t score. Are we going to panic and worry? Absolutely not. We are going to win the game in the fourth quarter and that’s the way it’s going to be.”
The Steelers are believed to name Wilson the starting quarterback above Justin Fields this season, and are looking for him to take on a much-needed leadership role. So far, he’s handle the pressure of that situation well.