Find yourself a partner who looks at you the way Pittsburgh Steelers rookie Payton Wilson looks at a football field. He just wants to run around smashing people and making plays—for a higher purpose, perhaps. And he finds empowerment from the injury setbacks he has faced, to an even greater love of the game.
“I’ve definitely had some injuries, but [I wanted to] just come back stronger and better and faster every single time,” Wilson told reporters on Friday during the first day of rookie minicamp practices via the team’s website. “My love for the game has grown so much because it’s been taken away from me.”
Wilson has experienced multiple major injuries during his career to the point he has lost track of the number of surgeries. But each time he has faced that adversity of injury, he has come back, pushing himself even harder.
“I’d literally do anything to be on that field,” Wilson said. “Whether that’s maintenance, whether that’s fighting through stuff, I just love this game so much and I want to honor Jesus Christ by being the best person that I could possibly be and take these talents as far as I can.”
In another interview with the team’s website, Wilson went a bit more into how his injury adversity on the field turned him even further to religion. That’s one of his chief draws, and he wants to be the best at what he does to honor the Creator in his faith.
That’s a powerful motivation for anybody who holds such beliefs, and he seems to have strong convictions. The late Dan Rooney used to list his priorities as faith, family, and football, in that order. And I think Payton Wilson is exactly the player that he would have loved.
The Steelers turning their attention to Payton Wilson is no surprise. You’re not going to find a middle linebacker with more conviction. His tape also speaks for itself. The only real question is his long-term durability. While his faith drives him to recuperate maximally from injuries, it doesn’t give him super healing powers. Nobody’s raising his ACL from the dead the next time it tears.
One hopes, of course, that they manage to avoid that issue entirely and that he stays on the field. His rookie teammates have said that he’s already begun devouring the playbook, which is hardly a surprise. Even if he only plays on special teams this year, you know he’ll give everything to that role.
But he’s on record saying that he wants to be on the field for every snap and making every play. I don’t know how much time he might see on defense this year—they already have Patrick Queen and Elandon Roberts—but he can always force the issue with his play. Certainly, the Steelers may favor Wilson over Roberts in 3rd-and-long situations.
Payton Wilson plays like somebody who understands better than most that any snap could be his last—not because a team decides that it no longer needs him but because his body may give way on him. You can see that in the sheer intensity with which he talks whenever the subject is football.
