Pro Bowl safety Earl Thomas took some time in the wake of the Seattle Seahawks' messy but important win on Sunday to shoot down a rumor that some members of the team don't think quarterback Russell Wilson is black enough.
Earl Thomas says Russell Wilson ‘not black enough’ story is ‘insult to our race’
The safety took offense to rumors that some in the Seahawks locker room didn’t think their quarterback was “black enough.”
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"My reaction [to the Wilson story] is that it's an insult to our race," Wilson told Peter King of The MMQB following a 13-9 win over the Carolina Panthers. "And Russell is the ultimate competitor. He always works as hard as anyone, and he handles himself with poise. He represents our team and our organization very well. I don't think there's any problem with him in our locker room at all."
The Percy Harvin trade earlier this month set off a firestorm of stories about tensions within the Seahawks locker room. Reports of fights between Harvin and other players surfaced, and that eventually morphed into a story about a fault line forming around Wilson and how players perceived his relationship with management.
That story took an ugly turn when a Bleacher Report story came out after Harvin was sent packing to the New York Jets claiming that "some of the black players think Wilson isn't black enough." Players lined up after Sunday's win in Carolina to deny the "black enough" talk.
Richard Sherman shot down the rumors, telling Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post, "Nobody in here said that. It's made up."
Wilson himself also downplayed it.
“Black enough? I don’t even know what that means,” he told Hubbuch. “I’m just an educated, well-spoken male.”
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