After spending earlier portions of the offseason getting to know his skill players with a San Diego training session, Russell Wilson hung out with the big guys up front in charge of protecting him throughout the 2024 season. Wilson is spending his Friday night at PNC Park with the Steelers’ offensive line, a chance to get to know them away from the team facility.
Following batting practice and throwing out the first pitch, Wilson watched the game from one of the ballpark’s suites and was interviewed by Pirates reporter Hannah Mears.
“They’ve been working their butts off every day,” Wilson said via MLB.com. “How hard they’ve been working. It was cool. We had the weekend off. So we wanted to be able to celebrate together, hang out together. Hopefully we get this win tonight.”
The Pittsburgh SportsNet account tweeted out part of the interview, though not the comments about the team’s o-line.
Unfortunately, the win is looking less likely, with the Pirates down 6-0 to the Boston Red Sox in the sixth inning. Wilson has quickly embraced the city. During his intro press conference in March, he highlighted Pittsburgh’s atmosphere as one of the reasons why he signed with the Steelers along with Mike Tomlin and the team’s culture. Though Wilson hasn’t talked much about his status as the team’s starter, the opportunity to open the season for the team was obviously an important factor.
Wilson has been making the Pittsburgh sports tour this month, recently catching a Penguins game alongside second-year offensive lineman Spencer Anderson. It’s not clear which linemen are attending tonight’s game with Wilson but Devery Hamilton, who signed a Futures contract with the team in January, shared an Instagram story at PNC Park. So safe to say he’s part of the group.
Before the game, Russell Wilson hung out with the Pirates’ Andrew McCutchen, the two already friends over the years, with Wilson joking Cutch could suit up for the Steelers this fall.
“I said earlier. I think Cordarrelle Patterson and him could be kick retuning. Could be pretty cool.”
Patterson was signed hours after the NFL officially approved a major change in kickoffs that should encourage the number of returns this season. Patterson holds the NFL record with 9 career kick return touchdowns and is third all-time in kick return average. But for tonight, the focus isn’t on football. It’s on baseball and getting to enjoy a Friday night game.
