000
in which players are more likely to make
headlines for domestic violence. “I think
it’s a good thing to open your heart to the
world and give yourself to people,” Wilson
tells me. “It’s part of growth, it’s part of life.
I think also to have your own daughter—it
changes your perspective. It really does.”
Talking so openly about love, about
growing as a person, makes him an out-
lier in football, and he often catches f lak
for it. But Wilson doesn’t care if he gets
blowback from fans who might not want
to see a quarterback telling his wife how
much he loves her on social media or sing-
ing and dancing in a virtual bunny suit.
“I don’t worry about what other people
say or think,” Wilson says. “I always want
to lead w it h love. That’s where my hear t
is. Let that direct me. It’s that simple.” MJBACK AT THE PHOTO SHOOT, WILSON IS
heading to the trailer to change, and we’re
waiting for the elevator when I decide to
bring up something that’s the elephant in
the room in any discussion about profes-
sional football: politics. It’s also a subject
that Wilson studiously avoids, save for
a few stray comments. (“We believe in
love—t he only way to defeat t he hate is by
loving people,” he opined after President
Trump referred to protesting football
players as “sons of bitches.”)
Instead, my question comes out awk-
wardly: I ask if he feels a responsibility to
speak out about racism, especially now
that he has children.“I’m not into politics,”
Wilson says. “I’m into people: How do you
make the world a better place, so you bring
people together and not apart.”
A politician couldn’t have said it better.
Yet a few days later, I am surprised to
see that Wilson has tweeted about the two
migrants from El Salvador, a father and
daughter, who drowned trying to cross
the Rio Grande. “I am a Descendant of
Slaves,” Wilson wrote. “America didn’t
mind ‘Immigrants’ then but now it’s 2019
& families are searching for a better way
of life for their innocent children. The
‘American Dream.’ It’s become a NIGHT-
MARE. Innocent children dying is wrong.
#WhereIs TheL ove #Ma ke AC ha nge.”
The tweet reminds me of another viral
v ideo, of his daughter Sienna’s ballet class,
with Wilson, the beefy jock, holding her
hand and walking on tiptoe. It’s undeni-
ably sweet, and a veritable antidote to the
culture of toxic masculinity of the NFL,