On Wednesday a Rolling Stone profile of Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson created national news when Wilson claimed in the story that a product he invests in helped him after he suffered a head injury during the NFC championship game.
Seahawks QB Russell Wilson (3) said he did not suffer a concussion in last year’s NFC championship game. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Wilson clarified his comments Thursday, saying he never suffered a concussion on a hit from Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews following a second-quarter interception in the Seahawks’ 28-22 come-from-behind victory. But he also stood by his praise of Reliant Recovery Water, which Rolling Stone writer Stephen Rodrick described as a “a $3-per-bottle concoction with nanobubbles and electrolytes.”
“I did not have a concussion,” Wilson told reporters after Seahawks practice at Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton. “I was saying that I had been consistently drinking the water for a month, month-and-a-half, five to seven times a day. And I was like, ‘Man, maybe this stuff is helping me out.’”
After the blindside block by Matthews, which earned the linebacker a $22,050 fine, there was some criticism of the Seahawks for allowing Wilson back in the game after a very brief sideline exam. But the fourth-year quarterback said Thursday he believed hydration — and specifically hydration with Recovery Water — may have helped prevent a concussion.
“I didn’t have a head injury,” he said later. “What I was trying to say is I think it helped prevent it. I think your brain is consisted of 75, 80 percent water, so I think that just being hydrated, drinking the Recovery Water, really does help.”
Wilson said he thought his comments in the Rolling Stone article, which made it sound as if drinking Recovery Water after the hit from Matthews helped the signal caller avoid a concussion, may have been “perceived wrong” by Rodrick. Those comments came under fire from the likes of The Washington Post’s Adam Kilgore, who wrote Thursday that the quarterback’s claims were irresponsible — and potentially dangerous.
“Wilson’s assertion is not only blatantly foolish,” Kilgore wrote. “It is reckless and craven, an attempt to profit with a ridiculous claim that could lead to impressionable players misdiagnosing their own concussion.”
But Wilson said Thursday that he believed in the Washington-based company and its product, which he said teammates Kam Chancellor and Russell Okung also used.
“It’s one of those things where I truly do believe it helps with recovery,” Wilson said. “I’ve been down to the laboratory in Tacoma. It’s pretty amazing so see everything that’s going into it, so it’s going to be a special company. I really believe in that.”
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