ESPN analyst touches on ‘phony’ perception of Russell Wilson

The Russell Wilson experience in Denver is not going exactly as planned, and it is not just his play that is drawing criticism. 

His personality and the way he handles his image are also bringing it on, and in the mind of ESPN’s Keyshawn Johnson is making people think Wilson is a “phony.”

The latest incident involved the team’s flight to London where he talked about doing high knee exercises for four hours on the eight-hour flight. 

“I want him to just stop. That’s what I want. Just. Stop with always telling everybody what you’re doing and how you’re doing it,” said Johnson on ESPN on Thursday morning. 

He continued:

“Just be the quarterback of the team, man. Just do those sort of things. When I think about it, I like Russell. I like him a lot. I’ve interviewed him a bunch. I’ve been around him a bunch. But I don’t need to hear you worked out for four hours on a plane, that you studied the film while everybody else was sleeping. I don’t need to hear those sort of things. It’s not going to make me think, oh,  you’re doing everything right and nobody else is doing anything, they’re just sitting on the plane sleeping while you’re so in tune with doing everything. What’s going to happen is the things that are happening to him now. People think he’s phony. People think he’s a phony. It’s all an act. It shouldn’t be that way because he’s a good football player when everything is going right. I just hate to see this happening to him, and eventually his teammates are going to start side-eying him if they have not already.”