Denver Broncos QB Russell Wilson is known around parts of Football Twitter for a couple of things: fervent debates on whether or not he’s cooked, and how much of a cornball he can be. Well, with the 2023 season opening up, the Russ discussions are bound to hit an all-time high with Sean Payton brought in to deliver CPR to his career.
Did Russell Wilson wear eye black in his team photo? An SB Nation investigation
Only Russell Wilson would do this.
However, Payton may not be able to save people from believing that Wilson is corny, and this is where our investigation begins. On Wednesday, Underdog Fantasy’s Josh Norris posted this photo on Twitter, noting that Wilson wore eye black for his team photo, which is incredibly cheesy:
However, Broncos fans did correctly note and point out that on the Broncos’ team website, Wilson is pictured in the same way with no eye black. We here at SB Nation went and did an investigation and we can confirm the lack of eye black on the team roster photo:
So, the next question is, who would be so much of a loser to photoshop Russell Wilson wearing eye black to make him look more like a cornball?
After more investigation, the answer might be...nobody? Allow me to explain.
The Denver Broncos team site has Wilson with no eye black, however, we cross-referenced with ESPN, and we found our white whale. Russell Wilson, in eye black:
Then we went and checked other websites to see if there was any eye black on those. Maybe it was a clerical error by whoever does the photos at ESPN, maybe someone there messed up. However, this is from Yahoo Sports:
And this is from Fox Sports:
In fact, the only non-Denver Broncos sports sites that has Wilson not wearing eye black in the photo is the NFL and CBS site, but even that is intriguing. On the NFL’s website, Wilson isn’t wearing eye black, but it’s a noticeably different pose and no smile:
So the next question is, which one is real? Did Wilson take multiple photos like he was on the cover of Vogue, switching wardrobes and poses? Did he deliberately put on eye black for a few photos then wipe it off for other places?
Well, we can assume that the NFL and CBS photo is older, maybe from 2022 when Wilson first got to Denver. So that leaves us with the smiling photos, the ones in question. I think we can also rule out that Wilson took two separate photos, one with eye black and one without. The reason for saying this is because if you look at the two photos side by side, they’re the exact same. Same head tilt, same head positioning, it’s all the same. Unless Russell Wilson is some sentient AI robot that can take the exact same picture with the exact same positioning of his head, I doubt that’s true.
Which leaves us one option here: someone either photoshopped the eye black on or off Wilson and then sent it out. I’m not the biggest expert in how player photos are distributed from the teams to major sites like ESPN, but it would be weird if the team site sent out a photoshopped picture of Wilson with eye black, knowing the original was the one without it.
After doing some outside research, we have come to the conclusion that while the photos may or may not be the same, the odds are that Wilson took the photos with the eye black on, but then the Broncos removed the eye black for their photos, then distributed the photos with the eye black to major sports sites. It’s a lot easier to remove eye black in Photoshop than it is to put on eye black, and for cosmetic reasons some teams will touch up photos of players before posting them to the site.
However, we cannot rule out the possibility that Wilson took two separate photos, one with eye black and one without. That would be weird, but probably not even top 5 weirdest things Wilson has done.
That concludes our investigation here at SB Nation, Private Eye.
See More:
