Russell Wilson opens up about race and police reform, shuts down football talk

Russell Wilson participated in a video conference with reporters yesterday but didn't want to talk football, telling reporters, "None of that matters" in comparison to "life and what the black community is going through right now."

The Seahawks quarterback spent more than 30 minutes reflecting on the Black Lives Matter movement, police reform, and his own experiences with racism as a black man.

"When you think about the idea of Black Lives Matter, they do matter," Wilson said. "The reality is that me as a black person, people are getting murdered on the street, people are getting shot down, and the understanding that it's not like that for every other race. It's like that in particular for the black community. I think about my stepson, I think about my daughter, I think about our new baby boy on the way, and it's staggering to watch these things happen right in front of our faces, so I have a heavy heart right now."

This was Wilson's first time publicly addressing the media since the death of George Floyd while in police custody sparked nationwide protests. At several points, Wilson seemed to get emotional while speaking, as he spoke about his great-great-grandparents being slaves and how his father taught him about racism from a young age.

"Being black is a real thing in America," Wilson said. "It's a real thing in the sense of the history and the pain, even my own family, personally."

Wilson also shared a personal story of experiencing racism just after winning the Super Bowl in 2014, as an older white man told him "That's not for you" while he was standing in line for breakfast at a restaurant in California. He also shared his thoughts about the need to do a better job vetting and training police officers.

"Not every police officer is bad by any means, but the reality is I think there needs to be a process of ... the background checks and checking on these people and constantly -- not just the first time they get hired but also throughout the whole process as they're working as well," he said. "I think there's so much there that needs to be changed."