Is Russell Wilson an Undercover Alien Running for President of the United States?

Okay, so you should know that this has been one of those weeks where lots of people, again, are talking about Russell Wilson and his deal.

Because Russell Wilson, the main character of today's episode, the quarterback of the Never Broncos, was just informed that he is no longer the quarterback of the Never Broncos,

essentially.

He's been benched, which means that if you were to turn on this Chargers Broncos game on New Year's Eve on Sunday, you would not see Russell Wilson.

You'd see some guy named Jared Stidham, who is not very good either.

But Russell Wilson, the guy who was the prize of one of the biggest transactions in recent NFL history, that guy's season has now made it clear that that was one of the worst transactions in recent NFL history.

And the Broncos had a weird season.

They were plausibly a playoff team for a while.

It's not like Russ was terrible, but now it's clear that the Broncos are done with him.

They've made this choice not to risk anything that might trigger various guarantee clauses in his contract, which would pay him money.

And they're like, seemingly saying, we're going to move on from this whole thing.

And so what

is up with that?

I don't know, but I have a sense, thanks to this episode, of how we got here.

And yeah, I think we answered some questions, even though there are plenty left to be answered in the coming months.

So that's today's show.

Please enjoy.

Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out.

I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is.

He created a Twitter and he asked me what he should make his handle.

I was like, I don't know, you can just make it Russell Wilson.

And he also made it dangerous.

And I was like,

the f is dangerous.

And he's like, it's what my friends call me.

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So, Cortez, I really hate talking about college this much.

No, you don't.

We've gotten dinner so many times, and half the time you're wearing some form of a Harvard shirt.

It's embarrassing.

It's just like public advertisements.

But I bring it up to you today because I have a new theory that I've been workshopping.

I want to test it out on you.

And it's a theory that's actually not specific to where I went to college or where you went to college.

I believe that every college in America has someone that I like to call that guy.

That guy?

That guy.

What does that mean?

And which like Harvard inspired this?

Like, let's go.

This guy.

Go so loud.

He opens his mouth, but the words won't come out.

He's joking out.

Everybody's joking now.

The clock's run out.

Time's up.

Over.

Blow.

Snap back to reality.

That's objectively bad.

I'm sorry.

And I don't want to hear any more of that in case you want to.

So that guy in that video is current Republican presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, who was seen there rapping,

pander rapping, I suppose, at the Iowa State Fair just last month.

I mean, I know the name.

He's like, and he's in the polls and all this, right?

For the Republican candidate and all this stuff.

He's second right now.

Okay.

Second, f ⁇ ing second place in the Republican polls right now.

now and that that guy is my that guy from college which is uh especially surreal because vivek ramaswamy in college when you were both freshmen was famous on campus for his alter ego 20 years ago

and his alter ego was a libertarian rapper that he called davic

da vica okay da vic that's like honestly that might be the worst thing i've ever heard one of the most cringeworthy things that's embarrassing embarrassing.

Even like when I think back at our time together at Harvard,

Vivek and I wound up taking the same moral philosophy class as freshmen also.

And in lecture, I vividly remember, I've been joking about this for 20 years too.

In lecture, a lecture class with like hundreds of students in it, Vivek would raise his hand all of the time.

He would raise it conspicuously in the shape of a V.

Hold on.

So for the podcast audience, it's actually a V.

It's not like a

two.

That could also be a V.

No.

Wow.

Like, like

signing a bat signal, his own bat signal for terrible libertarian takes.

And I just want to clarify like what makes a that guy based on these details we've now discussed.

Give us the definition, please.

That guy is insanely ambitious, right?

He's incredibly image conscious.

He cares about how he appears.

Okay.

But he is totally undeterred by how much the people around him are all cringing at how awful and uncomfortable all of this is.

So that's a great definition.

Here's the thing.

This is the difference between you and I.

You went to Harvard.

Your classmates are like Mark Zuckerberg and this guy, Vivek.

I went to Florida Atlantic.

I went to FAU.

It's a nothing school.

So hearing you describe that, particularly the detail about people cringing about you.

Yes.

I was that guy at FAU.

You're looking at him.

I'm just going to give you a couple of details.

Okay.

I wanted to be the editor-in-chief of the newspaper.

I showed up to the election wearing a cutoff t-shirt from the gym and a tank top.

I won the election.

I got chastised by a pro editor for what I wore.

He later lost his job soon after.

Shout out to him for being a hater.

When I was the editor, I put a promo all across the school advertising for open house.

Cortez.

And I put three things about what you should come see.

Pizza.

chicken fingers, Cortez.

The last part is I had access to a golf cart.

I would use that golf cart to go to class and just leave it outside and wait for me to come out of class.

It was not allowed to do that.

I just want to stress to everybody that when I decided to start my show by talking to Ryan Cortez, I didn't know any of this.

Even still.

I think when I'm trying to like imagine the power rankings of that guys

in America, I think you're probably, you might be number two.

Okay.

But number one in terms of like a deeply image conscious person who sort of does all this theatrical stuff, does weird hand things, does weird voices,

and is, again, numb forever to the cringe that other people are feeling around him.

I would say that the number one that guy in America, Cortez, is in sports, actually.

And I think he's pretty obvious.

I think you and I are thinking of the same guy.

And I think that guy got his kicked by the Dolphins and Mike McDaniel McDaniel on Sunday and it was pretty bad.

And yet Russell Wilson still

undeniably first ballot that guy hall of famer.

Everybody has to have an ultra ego, right?

And I've been thinking about what my ultra ego would be and I think I have an alter ego.

His name, his name's Mr., Mr., Mr.

Unlimited.

You got to be unlimited.

You know, you got to have a thought process of being unlimited.

So when people ask you, you know, what you're thinking about or what you want to do in life or where you want to go, you got to be unlimited.

Tell them, I'm unlimited.

When he came out onto the field pregame for warm-ups, he went to the middle of the field, closed his eyes, held his arms out, and slowly spun himself around.

Hey, you want to split this Subway sandwich?

It is my signature sandwich.

It's called the Danger Witch, and it's dangerously good.

Be careful though, it's spicy.

Yeah, if you go on YouTube, there are entire compilations of videos like this.

Just enter in Russell Wilson plus cringe and you'll get an entire assortment.

There's so much more than that.

I mean, my skin hurts from cringing at that.

Like that, that was deeply uncomfortable to listen to and watch.

And Broncos country, as you alluded to, is a war zone right now, obviously, right?

And things are going so terribly that I actually am more fascinated now by Russell Wilson than I've ever been before.

I mean, me too, because the thing is, Sean Payton and Russell Wilson, it seems like they've been going at and Sean Payton's been critical.

And Sean Payton was critical of him before they got destroyed, but before they got like beat by 50.

I mean, like, imagine now.

Despite all of these public jokes, these public criticisms, the real Russell Wilson remains like a super private mystery.

Because, I mean, I remember ESPN once reported that Russell Wilson used to make people sign non-disclosure agreements before they entered his private box at Seattle Mariners games.

Sounds like some A-Rod behavior.

Right.

Like he's hiding something.

He wants to hide, it seems like who he really is.

And all of this is specifically why what I want to do today is find out who Russell Wilson, the ultimate that guy, was in college.

Because before the NDAs, before he won the Super Bowl, before he got divorced, married Sierra, before he became the centerpiece of what is arguably now the biggest and most disastrous trade in NFL history.

Like, he was a college kid.

And so, what we did was find someone who was in his inner circle, someone who roomed with him, someone who was at his first wedding, and sat behind Russell Wilson on the death chart at Wisconsin.

We found the guy behind that guy.

And our guy, it turns out,

has a pretty good idea of where the f this story might be going next.

I have a feeling that, like, Russell Wilson's not going to like this episode.

Well,

it's going to be spicy.

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nate tice i do want to introduce you here for people um who may not know your legend and i believe it is a legend because

i know i i've summoned you here as as a friend who has, in my opinion, the ultimate story of going to college with that guy, right?

But

I want to make clear that if not for that guy that I refer to, you, Nate Tice, might be for other people, might have been for other people, that guy himself.

Guess who I go to college with now?

Mike Tice's son.

Vikings head coach, Mike Tice's son.

You are at least that, that guy.

Yeah,

it's not like you can hide both physically and also verbiage-wise.

When my dad is 6'8 ⁇ , I'm 6'5 ⁇ .

Our last name is Tice.

That is a very specific kind of name.

It's kind of one that you can't, especially in the football world, you can't really hide too much with that last name.

People look at you and

they look at the last name and they go, oh, got it.

At 6'8 inches, Mike Tice is the tallest coach in NFL history.

And to the casual observer, this giant isn't very gentle.

Get off the field.

That was horse.

They don't even have to say, like, is that your dad?

They just figure it out.

They're like, oh, okay.

Tall, laugh a little too much, big forehead, squinny eyes.

Yeah.

Okay.

That's, I think I know who that is.

I just don't have the New York accent.

But no, I went to Wisconsin.

I played football there.

And there was pretty awesome because my dad was a coach for the Minnesota Vikings for a while, an assistant coach around the NFL for a long time and a player.

Yes.

But going to his, going to Wisconsin was pretty funny because it was a lot of Packer fans who all,

I got at least a dozen teammates that said, dude, I used to hate your dad.

And like, it sucks that you're actually a decent guy.

So Nate Tice in all of his decency is kind of underselling himself here because Nate would go on to become a scout for the Atlanta Falcons, a coach with the Oakland Raiders, and now the co-host of the athletic football show.

He's real smart.

But my favorite biographical detail is that Nate was also a ball boy for the Vikings while his dad was the head coach there, which meant that Nate was on the sideline in 2002 for the best play in the history of dual threat quarterbacking.

Vic on second and eight, off the play fake, has some running room.

Inside the 30, inside the 20, Vic, you're into the end zone.

Falcons win in overtime.

A 46-yard touchdown run.

And yeah, if you're watching on the DraftKings Network or on our YouTube channel, that is Nate Tice right there.

Right there with a literal X on his chest, on his vest, watching Michael Vick disintegrate his entire family with the greatest walk-off touchdown ever.

And when Nate got older, he himself became a quarterback for the University of Wisconsin Badgers at the very same time that another dual-threat quarterback, a certain graduate transfer from the North Carolina State Wolf Pack,

was about to join the team.

You are a quarterback, a backup quarterback in that quarterback's room with Russell Wilson.

But Russ is coming in, as you say, he's a fifth-year senior.

He has never been to Wisconsin before.

He shows up as a would-be savior.

That's what he hopes to be.

And I just want to know: do you haze the guy?

Like, what does the Wisconsin football team team do to a guy who shows up under those specific circumstances?

The Wisconsin hazing was not what you've seen in the news recently.

It's very kind of innocent.

Can't walk on the logo.

You have to, okay,

the freshmen, it's usually just freshmen and transfers.

We don't have a lot of transfers.

You can't use the elevator to go to the offices.

You have to use the stairs, you know, when you go to the meeting rooms, just minor things like that.

And another one was, you know, freshmen, you have to tuck your shirts in.

That is usually like kind of like, just, you know, so you look kind of like a dweeb, you know, you don't have to lose shirt.

You're tucking it in.

What are you going to the golf course?

You're working out here.

And so, of course, Russ comes in and we're like, okay, you got to tuck your shirt in.

Wait a minute.

He already tucked his shirt in when he worked out.

So that kind of takes away a little bit of our like a little innocent hazing that we had there that this new guy that comes in already tucked his shirt in.

And so it then, when he ended up becoming Russell Wilson, the freshman freshman actually looked cool because they're copying the starting quarterback.

And it kind of kind of just the rest of us seniors like, oh, well, that just took that away a little bit.

So he just embraced all of it, but it was a little bit of a problem for us, anyways, that what part of the hazing was something he already did in his day-to-day life.

I appreciate that Russell Wilson is totally oblivious to the idea that what you're trying to make fun of him for, he actually just is organically.

There's a couple differences with Russ.

One was, first off, his kind of like his work ethic as a pro kind of stood out right away.

And I think that's what made Wisconsin guys embrace him right away.

And that's always something that stuck with me.

It's like, I thought I worked hard.

And then I got around Russ and was like, oh.

And then off field was Russ doesn't drink.

So I would go to this comedy club on State Street in Madison and I was like, oh, let's do that.

So I go to the comedy club with him and I'm showing up.

I'm just schlub.

I'm a 22-year-old broke college student.

I, you know, just probably wearing cargo shorts and, you know, know, just a polo shirt, whatever I'm wearing.

And here comes Russ wearing kind of a cabby hat and like a white button down.

And I remember the first thing I said to him was like, oh, you're lucky you're getting that in before Labor Day.

And he had no idea what I meant.

He just stared at me.

He was like, yeah.

And I just was, okay, okay.

With his fiancé, that's also a notable thing.

He was like, oh, you're in a serious relationship with someone from high school coming from an apartment that was like opposite side of Madison on the lake.

And I was like, oh, yeah, you like, you play professional baseball already.

And it was just all these types of things, how he carried himself that I'm like, you're a little bit different than the normal college kid I usually drink my like Corazite and Miller lights with.

Yeah, but wait, so Russell Wilson, who again, yes, it's a great reminder, had played professional baseball, was a draft pick, was a two-sport athlete in ways that are

just sort of mind-blowing.

You go out with him.

And as you guys become close to each other, like, how close do you get?

Like, now you're on the team together.

Yeah.

What's what's the level of proximity you guys share in football life?

Well, we were roommates on the road,

which was

a surprising choice even for me, but it was the thinking was, and I actually think Russ requested it from what I was told was that because he wanted to.

talk over the game plan the night before the game.

That was his number one reason for it.

It wasn't because, oh, Nate Tyson's my best friend,

but we would room on the road and then we ended up getting along.

Great.

Like we would hang out and we played a a few night games that year.

So we would hang out in the hotel room all day during the day and we'd talk and kind of listen to music as we

developed a playlist.

Okay, wait, wait.

What is the playlist development process like with Russell Wilson behind closed doors?

It was because our first game was a Thursday night game against UNLV.

So we're sitting in a hotel room.

We have a walkthrough in the middle of the day and that's really the only thing to kind of break it up, maybe a couple of meals and everything until you get going to the game situation.

So I was like, let's make a playlist.

Let's get going on it.

And I'm like, okay,

I know he kind of likes gospel music.

And what is he going to go with?

So I think there's a lot of Justin Timberlake on the playlist.

And then he also requested a Rihanna song,

Cheers, I Drink to That.

And I was like, that's an interesting choice for someone that doesn't drink.

For people who aren't familiar with the lyrics, what is the song about?

It's about drinking and having a good time and uh that is the one of the lines that always stuck out with me and that is Rihanna saying like let the drink Jameson sink in

and Russ here's that lyric and we're getting ready for the game and we're listening to that song and he looks at me and he dead serious he asks he goes what is it about Jameson and I was like what do you mean and he's like like well i've seen you drink it and and you like it and he's like what what do you like about it and i was like i don't know it gets the job done it makes me feel nice and he was like okay i just you know she i've seen you drink it i've seen other people drink it and and i hear rihanna mentioning it and she sounds like she likes it so much so there must be something special about jameson right the question was so sincere yeah i mean admittedly it kind of sounds like he asks questions that an undercover fbi agent might if he was embedded right with a bunch of people so if you were to find Jameis saying especially under 21 where would you get it from this Jameis

speak of um what does it do when it enters your uh your throat as he is holding a tape recorder in front of you but wait but but oh but so okay let's let's let's let's take this in a in a different sense like if if this is a movie and i again in my mind it's already a movie um

what movie are you thinking of nate and who is russell wilson in that movie when it comes to just guy asking all of these questions all of the time?

It's

the movie that sticks out to me, and it wasn't, I had not seen it before I met Russ, but saw it in the years ensuing, was Starman, which starring Jeff Bridges.

It's a John Carpenter 80s movie.

It's actually a very sweet film, but it's about an alien that comes.

God, that sounds so mean.

Okay, it sounds like an alien that comes to Earth and stumbles upon a recently widowed wife or widowed woman.

And he clones himself into Jeff Bridges, which was the woman's former husband.

That's right.

And it's about the story of Jeff Bridges or Starman learning to become a human and become that husband.

And the questions that he asked, and how genuine they are, and how he asked them, that kind of is what reminds me of Russ.

This body has a terrible emptiness.

This is called hungry.

Yeah, and when people get hungry, they have to eat food.

Eat.

Yes, we must do that.

We will stop at food station.

You have hungry too.

That's the one that more than any other flick or more, any other thing, any other pop culture artifact that I think is like, that's kind of how Russ was, where it's just like these innocent questions to figure things out.

Yes, from another planet trying to figure out how you humans get down in Madison, Wisconsin.

You know, when I was doing research for this, and I try to do as much research as I can on Pablo Torre finds out, of course, I dove into the YouTube archives of just interviews Russ had given in the year 2011.

And they asked him, somebody asked him, a reporter, a local

radio reporter asked him, have you seen any good movies lately?

Or listeners, they want to get to know Russell Wilson a little bit.

So why don't you tell me what's the best movie you've seen this summer?

Best movie I've seen this summer.

Wow.

To be honest with you, I haven't seen too many movies.

Are you movie guy or not?

Yeah, I am.

I am a big movie guy.

I saw Friends with Benefits the other day.

Okay, with Justin Timblicks in it.

And the girl's name, I forget her name.

Kunis, yeah, Kunis, yeah, something like that.

That's pretty funny.

Yeah, that was pretty funny.

Started off kind of slow, but I liked it a lot.

And he kind of like struggled through it.

Didn't seem plausibly human in that answer.

But then he asked them: What about favorite TV show?

What are you watching on TV when you're not, you know, getting ready for the season?

Favorite TV show, probably everybody loves Raymond.

Yeah.

Yeah, I love watching that.

A lot of reruns of that then.

Yeah, that's that all the time.

Yeah.

Everybody loves Raymond.

That's such a perfect answer.

What's a better answer than that?

Like, what is more like an apt answer than that?

Then everybody loves Raymond.

What's so amazing to me is that it feels like what an alien would say because he's like, it's in the title.

Everybody loves Raymond.

Loves Raymond.

All of you guys, I'm told, love Raymond.

And so me too.

I love Raymond.

Right?

Just I'm everybody.

I like this.

Yeah.

But hold on.

Take me behind the closed doors of this, of, of, of, of this hotel room that you guys share on the road.

Like, what do you guys, what are you guys watching together?

Like, what comes to mind when you think about memories that you shared?

Just like two bros broing out?

We're getting ready.

We're sitting in our beds in the morning.

We just finished breakfast and we're watching the end of college game day.

And just as it wraps up, all of a sudden, like, just a

feature starts, you know, Tom Rinaldi, Rinaldi.

And it was just, you know, all of a sudden it starts.

And it's about Russell Wilson.

And he's laying there right now on the bed bed next to me.

Not the same bed, separate beds, but we're just sitting there watching it.

And then all of a sudden, it's just this whole feature about Russell Wilson.

In a way, our memories are a theater.

The frames of our past flicker as we project our own light onto the screen and into the story.

For Russell Wilson, the story begins with his father.

David is darker

player, and his favorite target is Harry Wilson, all-Ivy split-in from Virginia Beach, Virginia.

And I'm kind of just,

where does this come from?

He didn't mention this.

He never mentioned it once during the week.

He never mentioned it once that morning.

And it just starts, and I'm right next to the guy that they're doing this whole feature on, and it's talking about him and his dad.

and his dad who had passed and about what the influence that he had on his life.

And Russ just watched that kind of stoically and not saying like dispassionately, but just more like he was really focused and watching that.

I think my dad was ready to go because you know he knew that I was headed in the right direction.

This fall, the movie plays on.

Russell Wilson's final season of college football is unfolding with the Badgers.

The team and the setting are new, but the quest is the same to achieve that dream that still stretches from father to son.

Very surreal experience for me.

As I

do want to I do want to clarify this picture because the story is a really meaningful, heartfelt one.

Like Russell Wilson, Nate, what I've read, everything I've read and seen from features like this is that Russ's dad is the man who sort of imbued him with a lot of the phrases that he still uses today, right?

Like what's that one about a king, right?

There's a king in every crowd.

Yes.

And like Russ's.

King in every room.

Yeah, Russ's dad said this thing.

He still says it.

It's one of his catchphrases that he's now kind of made fun of for today.

But in this scenario, the reason I bust out laughing is because I'm imagining you being just a normal guy who's like,

what?

How am I supposed to

be in this emotional dynamic?

And I'm already bad at that as it is.

Like when someone has bad news happen, I'm always just like, hang in there.

You know, like I'm just kind of, you know, get tap, big tap on the bat guy.

And

that is unfolding and like you said it is from by all accounts his dad was a very uh successful man and very you know respected man you know had a high education at dartmouth was a good football player um just seemed to be a very you know someone that really had like a lot of people looked up to especially russ and when he i didn't know any of this any of this i knew he had passed but i didn't know any of this until leading into that watching that feature and and it finished and he never again never mentions this throughout the week.

It finishes all up.

And he kind of, you know, I'm like, I didn't really say a word.

You know, what do you say?

Like, is like, is that good?

Is that bad?

And he kind of just looked at me and goes, what'd you think?

And I didn't, I was like, I thought that was really pretty.

I think that was exactly my phrase.

Oh, names.

I thought that was really pretty.

And

I was like, I think that was, I think that was good.

I didn't know what to say.

And he was like, yeah, I did too.

And then we just moved on.

And that was it.

It was just such a, again surreal experience to be

watching that with someone that hadn't mentioned it, and it not to be just like this little fun video, but to be this really, really passionate, heartfelt message throughout it.

And it just really that always stuck with me.

That just little experience talking with him during that, or not even talking with him, sitting near him while he watched it.

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I'm an outsider too to Madison, Wisconsin, the greatest college town in America.

What are some of the cultural folkways that Russ just wanted to know about that he was relying on you for?

So we at that time had a documentary crew following us from ESPN.

It was Year of the Quarterback or QB Death Chart or QB1, something like that.

And they're doing a whole theme.

It was like us, Oklahoma State and some other spots.

But when Russ came in, I think the producers for that documentary kept asking him to sing the fight song.

Do you know the words to the fight song yet?

Do you know any of this?

And all of us in the QB room,

including our offensive coordinator quarterback coach, who was an alum of Wisconsin, none of us really knew the words other than on Wisconsin.

And, you know, that's what the title of the song is.

And it's a very famous college fight song, but

even to this day, I struggle with some of the words.

But that stuck with him.

And then all of a sudden it'd be kind of,

all of a sudden I'm hearing in interviews.

He finishes the interviews and he will finish it with on Wisconsin.

Russell Wilson, enjoy the game on Saturday.

Thanks for giving us some time.

Thank you guys so much.

On Wisconsin.

And I was like, oh, that's kind of cute.

All right.

I've never really heard of that.

I wonder.

That probably was just the one interview he did.

Appreciate you guys so much.

On Wisconsin.

He sang on Wisconsin at the end of every interview and I was like, and people freaking at Wisconsin ate it up.

Of course.

Madison fan base were like, oh, thank you guys.

Appreciate it.

On Wisconsin.

Russell, we're sorry this season has been such a disappointment for you, but hopefully in the Rosebury, you'll be able to have some fun.

I can't wait.

On Wisconsin.

That becomes like a whole thing, a recurring theme throughout his career.

Go Hawks, Go Hawks, Go Hawks, Go Hawks, Go Hawks.

Broncos Country, let's ride.

Broncos Country.

Let's ride.

But even going into Monday night football, when you announce your school that you went to, he would say a whole pack of Badgers.

Welcome Wilson from a whole pack of Badgers.

Which always cracked me up because it was like, oh, he's appealing to the North Carolina delegates that was on,

as well as the Wisconsin ones.

He's broad appeal here.

Now he's got the Pacific Northwest going.

He's getting every time zone here.

And then now he gets into Denverland.

Now he's got the mountain time zone.

So he's kidding.

There's a

there's a savvy is what you're describing there.

There is a there is a public relations, almost political savvy to the idea of they read the polls.

And so now he's going to feed it to them every time.

But I feel like when I think back to that 2011 season, I think of that Nebraska game.

What do you remember about like Nebraska week?

Okay, so we're on the sideline for that game or leading up to that game, and they want to talk to Russ.

You know, it's like the athletic director, Barry Alvarez, Kirk Herbstreet, a couple people from the Dan Patrick show, a couple people behind the show Entourage, along with some Wisconsin boosters.

Of course, as one does.

And Russ would always, in these situations, be like, hey, hey, Tyser, come with me.

It's like, dude, I'm the backup quarterback.

I played like 20 snaps in my college career.

They don't want to talk to me.

But he kind of almost used me as like a human meat shield to like kind of like, okay, all right, all right, you're my gold retriever.

Go talk to him.

Okay.

And then I'll slide in and talk to him too.

So I was like, okay, I'm fine with it.

I get to freaking meet Kirk Herb Street.

This is great.

I'm talking to all them.

So leading into that, the next night, we're in the Friday game or Friday in the hotel room.

And Russ and I are talking about the Dan Patrick show because he met those people, met the people from it.

And he was like, oh, you know, hopefully I can be on the show.

And I think if we win, we might be on the show.

I could maybe get on there.

And then he goes, what, what are the Dan Patrick guys like?

Like anything, anything in particular?

And I was like, well, if you do an interview after the game, if we win, say Passion Bucket.

They'll like that.

And he's like, really?

Just say Passion Bucket.

I was like, yeah, rope it in.

Rope it in.

Like the Passion Bucket's full or something like that.

He's like, okay.

So we win this game.

Russ plays phenomenally.

I think he was anointed.

ESPN put him as the leader of their Heisman race.

You know, they would do that every week.

He's at the desk after the game, you know, college game days there.

And I think he's with Fowler.

And sure enough, Fowler asked him, How, what did you have planned for this game?

How'd you go?

And he drops the passion bucket line.

And sure enough, after that game, there he is on a Dan Patrick show on that Monday.

Wait, Nate, you were his speechwriter, is what I'm getting.

I was.

I was.

I was his speechwriter.

I'm keeping it 1600.

But

he has you reviewing game film.

Is that what's happening here?

It's game film of actual game film and then media film.

He's asking me how his answers were coming across.

Is that funny?

Is that something people like?

And again, none of this sounded like a shallow person or someone that was like evil.

It sounded like someone that was generally asking and was truly trying to go, like, okay, is this good?

And I think that's what Russ is, I think, as a pleaser when it comes down to it, but also a lot of weird.

And I think that that's exactly what Russ is.

Like, you have to be wired a certain way to be an NFL quarterback, especially a successful NFL quarterback.

Some guys are naturally cool, like Lamar, you know, Lamar Jackson, even Josh Allen in his own kind of weird way is kind of cool, Joe Burrow.

And also, just, I think that's Russell on the field is so different than Russell, you know, as we see him

in the media, in the media world, the media landscape.

Compare and contrast that, right?

Because off the field, of course, you're describing somebody who is, who's, who's like the epitome of try hard, who is trying hard to come off as somebody who is cool.

On the field, what are you seeing as a scout?

He's a psycho competitor.

Him on the field is cool, calm, and collected.

We had, we ended up losing these games to Michigan State and Ohio State on Hale Marys, but he single-handedly brought us back because of plays he created.

He, in the big-time championship game, brought us back to beat Michigan State and then like was an awesome game.

In that Michigan State game, he throws a beautiful touchdown on like third and extra long.

Golson from Michigan State, who's with the Bucs right now, snaps his helmet all the way to his side and breaks Russ's nose in the middle of the game.

And Wilson breaks the tank.

Diers,

what an open touchdown!

Abra Daris

What a play by Russell Wilson Everyone's going nuts on the sideline There's a flag a touchdown up crowds going nuts and Russ just looks at me and goes like and all he says to me he goes do I still look pretty and he meant it as a joke and but how calm he was in that moment No, that's badass.

That's action

that's action movie winking at the camera shit.

That was it it was like he was like and I couldn't believe it as he's coming off the field as every the trainers are coming up to him and he looks me in the eye and says that and i was like it's like dude that's so cool like this

i was like dude dude you're a baller man but but this is what's so difficult when we we talk about trying to summarize who a person really is is that you've now described a couple of different personas inside of russell wilson it sounds like i will say that and this just kind of came to me was when he he created a twitter in that whole in one of our hotel room experiences when he created his twitter oh you were there for the foundation.

I was there.

I was there.

And he asked me what I should make, what he should make his handle.

I was like, oh, no, you can just make it Russell Wilson.

I think that's totally fine.

Russ Wilson 16.

That's what he wore at Wisconsin.

And he also made it dangerous.

And I was like, the f is dangerous.

And he's like, it's what my friends call me.

And I was like, I've never heard you say that.

Like, ever once.

And you're going to make your Twitter handle that?

It was like, oh, there's another side of you that I have no idea about and also just like what you know just this other aspect that you kind of unravel and show a little bit more and it's yeah it's a little odd you're living the dream alongside a guy who is achieving his

and and

the wedding story

what is because you get i mean i just want to be very blunt about this

you get invited you're in the inner circle right you're at his first wedding And so tell me, paint that picture for me.

What's what does it look like to go to Russell Wilson's wedding?

I think also you have to remember with Russ.

Russ is from Richmond, Virginia, and the school he went to is like the collegiate school.

He's from a nice area, and that wedding was very nice.

It was one of the nicer weddings I've ever been to.

And this is before, again, that he was even drafted in the NFL.

And yes, he had a baseball contract and everything, but he had.

uh like a long tail for his suit you know like an old school like tux like penguin yeah

had that.

I believe they had top hats and white shirts or white gloves

as well.

And, you know, it was a very southern,

like southern genteel.

Yeah, right.

But this is getting to that wedding and just seeing that aspect of his life and the wedding that had, you know,

champagne with strawberries.

Yeah, but that's, but that, again, this is what it's like to be friends with someone in college.

One day you realize you're also this guy.

oh it's one of those yeah oh ah i didn't ah you mentioned this but i didn't put it together you didn't have tails is what you're saying you didn't have tails on your on your suit on your suit i did not no i did not had a nice suit though even then even then i knew to at least dress i think i had a nice suit anyways enough

your suit had cargo pockets nate i was like i knew i kind of was getting into when i got the invite and i think i even like i pushed to get like a new suit from my parents for like christmas or something like that i was like hey can we can you help me out here?

I'm going to the Rosebow and I got a real wedding to go to.

Yeah, Russell Wilson's wedding invitation has cursive that I can't read.

So I feel like I got to go get a better suit.

That's that's exactly it looks like it's been written with a with an with a with a feather.

But wait, so I want to keep on following this arc because your path at this point, I'm placing you at this wedding and you're there, you're in the inner circle.

And

where does it go from there?

Like when do the paths begin to diverge?

I guess when he gets to the NFL, like, when did, how does that go?

He gets drafted by Seattle and by the Seattle Seahawks.

My background, I'm originally born in Seattle or Bellevue, Washington.

My dad played for the Seahawks for 10 years.

I'm a die-hard Seattle Mariners fan.

I moved to Minnesota.

When my dad became a coach for the Vikings, is when I moved to Minnesota.

But until that point, we had a house during the summer because coaches would take vacation in the summer before camp out an hour away from Seattle near Gig Harbor, Washington.

So he gets drafted.

And so he's kind of still part of my life because I'm like, hey, I'll be there this summer.

Let's hang out.

Yeah, what are the odds?

What are the odds?

Like, this is continuing.

Look at this.

And, you know, he's drafted in the third round.

The Seahawks just drafted Matt or signed Matt Flynn from the Packers.

So who knows?

I'm realistic about quarterbacks in the NFL.

It's like, okay,

he's kind of a huge outlier.

His size and everything, I've had experience seeing what quarterbacks work and what don't.

Who knows?

He was amazing.

He's a much better passer than I think he got credit for.

But who knows if he starts or not?

So we were there that summer.

He comes to our house for 4th of July.

We went to a bar called, have you noticed a lot of my stories are bar involved?

I've noticed this.

Yeah, I know.

I know.

This was a dark period in my life.

It was a great period, actually.

But

we went to a bar called FX McCrury's in Seattle.

And we get there and people recognize my dad.

Again, my dad is 6'8.

He played for the Seahawks for a long time.

6'8, Mike Tice, 6'5, Nate Tice, 5'11, Russell Wilson is the order of totem poles here.

So everyone comes up to my dad.

My dad's kind of like a people's champ.

He was a blocking tight end for the Seahawks.

So, you know, he gets some old-timers coming up to him.

I'd say about a dozen people came up to him.

And that happens in Seattle.

It's pretty cool.

It's a lot of fun usually.

But no one recognized Russell.

And my dad was, he loved Russ.

He wanted to draft him to the Bears.

He thought he was going to take him in the fourth round.

They already had a sign sale delivery.

That would change a lot of destiny.

A lot.

Which might be understating it, honestly, because at this point in 2012, Mike Tice was the offensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears, and his quarterback

was Jay Cutler.

Russ's brother lived in Chicago at the time.

You just broke so many hearts.

Right.

Just

that counterfactual alternate timeline is oh.

They were, they're bought.

They sold, sold on it.

It was signed off.

If he was there in the fourth, they were taking them.

I know.

So it's, he loved Russ, but he kept going, hey, this is every fan that came up, he goes, this is Russell Wilson.

This is going to be your guy's starting quarterback.

And every guy goes, every person kind of gave the, you know, this handshake.

The, oh, yeah, nice to meet you, but they're looking somewhere else because they're trying to look for the next best thing.

And coaching, they call that the combine handshake.

It's where, it's where you, hey, what's up?

Hey, coach.

And it's like some head coach or offense coordinator and and you're like, you're really excited to talk to him.

But then as they're talking to you, they're already looking for the next conversation to get into.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Good to see you.

Oh, I know it real well.

But

so that, so they kept kind of doing that to Russ.

And my dad was like, no, seriously.

And then I guarantee you, competitive Russ

channeled all of that and bottled all of that.

And every person goes, well, I thought Matt Flynn's our quarterback.

And Russ was like, okay.

And he didn't really say much.

And he kind of just took it.

And he took the starting job and he's never relinquished it, or he never did through his time.

But that was my experience.

And as he's going through his rookie year, and he has a successful rookie year, the fail merry happens that year, I believe, against the Packers.

And we're texting after that game, like, ha ha ha.

He gets Eminem, writes about him in a song.

It's stay back, Custer Wilson, falling right back in the trap.

Turn nothing into something, still connect.

And I think with Rihanna,

get along with the voice like y'all.

All this surreal stuff happening, and we're still texting all the time.

And I think we met up that next spring, like we were both back in Madison, we hung out, like all this stuff.

Then the Super Bowl year happened, and that's kind of when the diverging of our past really started to kind of happen a little bit more and more.

So, so this is year two, right?

This is all happening fast.

He goes from

what is Rihanna singing about here to wait a minute, now I'm being name-checked by Eminem to, oh, wait, now I'm winning the Super Bowl in year two.

In year two.

It's kind of a nice path to be on.

Yes.

Well, another quarterback won a Super Bowl in year two.

Oh, Tom Brady.

Oh, wow.

This is fun.

This might be a great path I'm going on.

So that is the tone of voice of a person who used to be in the inner circle, but is now watching from below the overpass.

Who's just like,

oh, oh, this is like.

It was more about what happened.

And again, don't get me wrong.

I was, I still am a big Russell Wilson supporter, but as a football player and just watching him, it was like, I, he deserved all the success.

He was awesome.

He's freaking awesome.

He's so good.

And I think it's just as the years have gone along and other things happened throughout his career.

But it's like, this dude was awesome and such an electric talent that I was very excited at that time always to be like, yeah, I know Russ.

Yeah, I know Russ.

I would name drop him left and right.

Of course, I would.

Of course, I would.

I mean, i would too i i demand so

i demand though um honesty from you as you now are watching the trajectory diverge from yours because right i'm looking through like just my mental rolodex of stuff that happens super bowl year on and it's endless yeah i mean so so just as a matter of just like uh in no particular order right like his feud with the defense with richard sherman with earl Thomas, all those guys, because he's Pete Carroll's like favorite son.

That whole saga, which is bubbling and bubbling and bubbling.

And anyway, it continues on for years.

There's him,

I mean, marrying Sierra.

And by the way, as this is happening, so too is where like the jokes, right?

I mean, this is where, I mean, you, again, you were there on the ground floor

and you're watching now the jokes, the personas, the Mr.

Unlimited,

right the memes the voices now we have russell wilson doing voices like there's cool guy russ voice there is normal guy russ voice there is yes all of this happening and now the world is getting a taste of the alien that you taught about earth

a taste of the alien yeah the the the star man became a star and uh a super star man in fact yeah a super star man

man

yes the star man became a star man uh but it's uh i think that kind of weird side and just that kind of oh i want to say again most quarterbacks are extremely weird and i'm speaking from experience yeah and it's just a personal my own experience but it's i i think with the

watching him and seeing kind of like what gets poked and what got kind of memed, it was one of those where in the moment, especially in college, you're you're just like, oh, yeah, whatever.

He's weird and whatever.

And then I think with stardom and becoming relevant, when people poke and poke and poke and try and find any holes with you, it became more of a thing.

When you don't have success, that's when people are going to just try and bring you back down.

I think his personality was one of those where it's like, he's too clean.

You know, he's too, he's, he says, oh, he's, he's too boring.

He's too corny.

And it was kind of like, yeah, he kind of always was like that, wasn't he?

And it's just that it kind of got highlighted a little bit more.

Well, the Sean Payton thing, right?

Like Sean Payton is now inheriting this quarterback who has increased the magnitude of his goals.

You just alluded to some of them, but he has told USA Today, Russell Wilson has, that the biggest goal, quote, is to be able to influence and change the world, right?

Like, this is the stuff that he's shooting for.

This is transcending the business that we are in, transcending sports.

And so when Sean Payton tells Seth Wickersham, my former colleague at ESPN, and I want to get this completely correct here.

Quote, will you stop kissing all the babies?

You're not running for public office, end quote.

What was your reaction when you heard that?

Right.

Like, right?

Like,

that was my reaction.

I have had a long developing theory about Russell Wilson from even my experience with him at Wisconsin and every step of the way afterwards is that everything he does is to be president of the United States.

And I,

there's been nothing to dissuade me from that opinion.

That's about quarter joking, and it's becoming less and less quarter.

It might be one-eighth joking after the next couple of years.

What party?

Which I don't know.

I think it's whichever one he thinks will win, that I wish I could say, but I have no inclination of how he feels

for anything like that.

But for anything,

economic,

personal policy, anything,

international policy.

I have nothing.

How does he feel about abortion?

I have no idea.

So there's a lot of aspects that I would have to answer before I could figure that out.

And that's me who roomed with him for almost an entire year.

Right.

The point there is not,

you know, who knows?

It seems almost deliberate.

that he has not revealed his actual beliefs about things in an effort to make sure that the coasts and the middle and all of these precincts across the country may in fact be really into russell incorporated yes and it's michael jordan said you know republicans buy jordans too and i think russ is like everybody buys levi's and i think that's what i think that's really something that he's taken to heart and is really trying to just make sure that that's his message no matter what it's also kind of a nightmare and i and i want to leaven the nightmare by pointing out that some part of me does actually relate to Russell Wilson and it's not just the part of me that also leans on crutches of catchphrases when I got nothing else good to say on camera

it's the fact that trying hard

is his sin and on some level Nate

Trying hard, wanting to be liked, wanting to be approved of, is kind of the most human quality that an actual

genetically natural human

might have.

And as someone that is

a media person now, it's like, can't really throw stones here

about being well liked.

I think there's a lot to the crux of my being that is down to just wanting to be liked.

So I can understand it.

Well, especially like in an interview like this, where I think if we're being very honest with ourselves and our listeners, you've just watched two people try to be a heightened, likable version of themselves, while also trying to convince you that this is just who we are.

Right.

And in that way,

I feel like saying on Wisconsin to conclude this, I feel like it's only fair.

I just hope a whole pack of badgers listens to this show.

Go, go, Hawks.

So,

what I found out today is kind of chilling

because I'm more like Russell Wilson than I ever realized.

There's the desire to seem cooler than I am.

There's the fact that I had a black tie wedding.

Also,

I don't get why people like Jameson so much, admittedly.

But

what I know now,

most of all, I can't unknow

as much as I might try.

Because

there is a decent chance that Russell Wilson retires soon

and winds up the running mate of Vivek Ramaswamy as part of some new libertarian rap party

that fulfills the dream of every that guy you ever met in college

and takes over the White House by like 2032.

This has been Pablo Torre finds out a Meadowlark media production,

and I'll talk to you next time.