The opener game of an NFL season is always a big deal and it’s all the more so when a team makes a big offseason move for a new starting quarterback, so the Broncos’ first outing with Russell Wilson was going to be a Week One highlight under any circumstances.
The NFL guaranteed it will be one of the marquee matchups when they opted to put the Broncos in Seattle to face Wilson’s former team on Monday Night Football. Seahawks wide receiver Tyler Lockett said this week that he hopes fans greet Wilson with cheers for what he did over his decade as the team’s quarterback.
When the trade went down, the Seahawks issued a statement saying “made it clear he wanted this change” and that could lead to a less positive response than Lockett is looking for. On Thursday, Wilson said that he didn’t know how he’ll be received but that his feelings about Seattle will remain the same either way.
“People don’t love you, they’re gonna hate you sometimes, whatever it may be,” Wilson said, via Michael Spencer of KCNC. “For me, I’ll forever have love in my heart for Seattle . . . My experience in Seattle was one of a kind. Ten years, I couldn’t imagine those years not being in my life. How special they were and how many games we won and how many amazing thrillers — the Super Bowl we won and everything else. I’m going to think about all those memories, the joy of that, the gratitude of that.”
It remains to be seen if Monday will include a celebration of Wilson’s decade in Seattle, but the Broncos will definitely be hoping that it goes down as the start of another successful chapter of the quarterback’s football life.
