How short rookie QB Russell Wilson reached new heights

RENTON, Wash. -- His first practice for his first NFL playoff game is over, and rookie quarterback Russell Wilson is as unassuming as a ball boy — and about the same height — as he strides off the field and into the Seattle Seahawks locker room.

There is nothing he can do about his height. He's 5-11, the shortest quarterback in the league.

There isn't much he can do about his humility, either. That's just him. Reared by a tight-knit family that loved sports and books, Wilson has turned out be smart enough to process an NFL playbook, savvy enough to lead men who have played pro football since he was in high school and skilled enough to show the way to an improbable 11-5 record.

The Seahawks preparing to face the Washington Redskins Sunday in a wild-card game? Maybe not even eternally optimistic third-year Seahawks coach Pete Carroll saw this coming.

And maybe only Wilson and his family and friends in Richmond, Va., expected him to come out of nowhere — actually, out of Wisconsin and the third round of the NFL draft — to challenge the first two picks in the draft, Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III, as the best rookie quarterback in the NFL.

"He was always known to bring the best out of everyone on the team," says Wilson's best friend since sixth grade, Scott Pickett, who played high school sports with Wilson. "He would bring everybody up. It was pretty remarkable."

Ask around, and people will say that what Wilson became is a big reason for what the Seahawks have become, and what made Wilson the way he is today was a family known for achieving great things and doing it the right way — with sportsmanship, grace and humility.

"I wouldn't be where I am today without my mom and my dad, my faith, and all my friends back home in Richmond," Wilson said Thursday in an interview with USA TODAY Sports. "I think they expected me to achieve something this year because they know me and they know the mindset that I have, a relentless nature to try to be great."

He also seems to be relentlessly nice — even to opponents.

"We'd play some of these big games against really vicious rivals, and after the game they're all over hugging Russell," says Charlie McFall, the co-director of athletics at Collegiate School, the prep school in Richmond that Russell attended from kindergarten through 12th grade and where he became a star in baseball and football, as well as class president.

"I'm going, what in the world is happening? I mean, he just kicked their asses, but he earned the respect of the opposition. He's not trying to show them up. You'd never see an unsportsmanlike thing out of him, and I think the first person that would've come and said something if he did would be his dad."

Inspired by his father

Wilson's father was Harrison Wilson III, who played two sports at Dartmouth, then went to law school at the University of Virginia. He was one of the last players cut by the San Diego Chargers in 1980. He was the son of Harrison Wilson Jr., also a college athlete who went on to become president of Norfolk State University.

These were serious achievers, bent on educating their family, so it's not surprising that when some Richmond parents began recruiting Wilson to play for public schools with better sports programs, Wilson's father went to McFall and said: "You don't have to worry about Russell going somewhere else. I brought him here to get an education, not for athletics."

Wilson's current teammates and coaches wouldn't be surprised by that story. They have learned that Wilson's uncommon rookie journey was set in motion by uncommon mental preparation.

"He came in with the right attitude, the right mindset and that was to get things done," says sixth-year wide receiver Sidney Rice. "From day one, he came in studying film here every day, learning the playbook. It's not something you normally see from a rookie."

Wilson's dad would love what they're saying about his son around the NFL this year.

"He used to always wake me up early in the morning, and he'd have me throwing speed outs at age 10, 11," Wilson says. "He helped build that determination in me."

Wilson's father suffered from complications from diabetes for years and died at 55 on June 9, 2010, the day after Russell was selected by the Colorado Rockies in the fourth round of the Major League Baseball draft.

Wilson, then a football and baseball player at North Carolina State, was at his father's side as he was dying, telling him he'd been drafted. (Wilson went on to play two years of minor league baseball but eventually decided to focus on football and transferred for a final year of football to Wisconsin, which he led to last year's Rose Bowl.)

"My husband was pretty out of it, but certain things you could tell him and you could see tears come down his eyes," says Wilson's mother, Tammy, a legal nurse consultant. "(Russell) didn't freak out. He was resolved. He had peace. I think he was glad that he could come and tell his dad he was drafted."

Wilson, 24 and married, has an older brother, Harry, 29, who played football and baseball at Richmond and now works in sales in Chicago. And he has a younger sister, Anna, a freshman basketball player at Collegiate who is already fielding Division I scholarship offers.

Anna is probably the one who teases Wilson most about his height. She says he "got the short end of the stick" and likes to stand next to him and remind him she's going to be taller than him.

Collegiate's McFall, the head coach when Wilson played there, says he doesn't think the height issue bothered Wilson much. "He would say, 'If I have to show 'em, I'll show 'em.' But I'll never forget, as I was doing the rosters he would come say, 'C'mon coach, put down six foot.' And I'd say, 'Russell, are you six foot?' And he'd whisper, 'Yeah, yeah, I'm real close.' He was really funny about it. I put six foot down there senior year."

At Seattle, though, they go with 5-11, and even that is said to be a fraction of an exaggeration.

Believing in a rookie

There may have been a little skepticism in the locker room when Carroll and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell went with a 5-11 rookie quarterback instead of free agent signee Matt Flynn to start the season. But it quickly evaporated.

"We had a lot of pieces to this puzzle already," says veteran fullback Michael Robinson. "When Russell was inserted into the starting lineup, we already knew his work ethic. We had already seen it in practice. It was just about him growing as a quarterback, and he did that."

The leadership question was never a question .

"He's one of those guys who leads by example," Robinson says. "When you're young like that, that's the best way to do it. You can't just come in demanding things. You haven't done anything yet. He showed us he was the same guy every day. That's what you want in this league."

And his height?

"He's been short all his life, and he got here," Robinson says. "It just doesn't seem to be a factor."

Actually, Rice says, it's a factor.

"Sometimes it is," he says. "For the most part, he gets the job done. But if you're in the middle of the field and you're behind a guy like (6-7 right tackle Breno Giacomini), there's no way you're going to see him or he's going to see you. But he's real mobile and he gets in position to make the throws."

Unlike Luck and Griffin, who put up big numbers right from the start, Wilson started slowly. Through four games, the Seahawks were 2-2 and Wilson hadn't thrown for more than 160 yards in a game. But wins against Carolina and then New England, against whom he threw for 293 yards and three touchdowns, sent the Seahawks' confidence soaring.

After some more ups and downs, the Seahawks' offense caught fire down the stretch, winning the last five games by a combined score of 193-60.

Wilson ended up with a 100.0 quarterback rating, fourth in the league. He completed 64.1% of his passes for 3,118 yards, 26 touchdowns and 10 interceptions and rushed for 489 yards and four TDs. His 26 passing TDs tied Peyton Manning's rookie record.

Along the way, the Seahawks coaches' trust in Wilson grew and grew.

"He's allowed us to do everything we can think of," Carroll says. "We trust him in everything we're calling. That's a wonderful feeling. It's remarkable that you can say that about a first-year guy."

It doesn't seem remarkable to Wilson's older brother, Harry. He's always known his kid brother to be prepared, cool and poised — except maybe for a thrown video game controller or two.

"He's got a lot more to accomplish," Harry says. "He's got a lot of goals, and there's no time to get excited about anything. Whether it's starting or getting a win, it's all just part of what the plan is."

Wilson says he'll have "tons" of family and friends coming from Richmond to the game Sunday.

One of them won't need a ticket.

"I know my dad is watching every snap," Wilson says, "and that he has a huge smile on his face."

Contributing: Robert Klemko in Richmond, Va.