Star quarterbacks have been treated differently than their peers from the beginning of time.
Is that reality creating problems in Seattle?
Seahawks receiver Doug Baldwin was asked Tuesday to respond to an ESPN The Magazine article suggesting that some teammates believe Wilson has been, at times, shielded from critique by Seattle's coaching staff.
"I don't know," Baldwin told KIRO-AM in Seattle. "Honestly, I didn't even read the entire article. I read parts of it. Didn't really have time to read the whole thing. I think Pete Carroll] does a fantastic job of handling different individuals differently. We all have our different personalities. We all act different ways. And Pete does a fantastic job of accommodating those personalities. He's done it with me. He's done it with Russ, with [[Richard Sherman], with [Marshawn Lynch], with all of us. And he does a great job at it."
ESPN The Magazine's piece zeroes in on Sherman, writing that the star cover man "has told teammates and friends that he believes the Seahawks should have won multiple Super Bowls by now. And with just one trophy and the window closing fast, he has placed responsibility for that failing on the two faces of the franchise: Wilson and Carroll. Sherman, who like Wilson declined comment for this story, thinks Carroll hasn't held Wilson or many young Seahawks to the defense's championship standard."
Along those lines, Baldwin was later asked if Carroll's guiding message to the team over the years still has the same impact on longtime veterans that it does with rookies and newbies to Seattle.
"If I'm being honest, no," Baldwin told the radio station. "I've heard it for going on seven years now, so I know what he's going to say when he says it. But it doesn't get lost. Don't get me wrong, it's not that it doesn't have the same impact. It doesn't have the same impact because I've heard it. It doesn't get lost."
Said Baldwin: "The first meeting that we have, he raises out the ball and says, 'It's all about the ball. We've got to take care of the ball. We've got to steal it from the offense and take care of it when we have it on offense.' And those things don't change. And that's probably one of the things that I love most about Pete is his consistency when it comes to his philosophy. He's not going to waver on that. He has a solid foundation on the way he wants to run his program, his philosophy on offense, on defense and special teams. And he sticks to that. He can be adaptable when it comes to the different personalities, but when it comes to his philosophy, he doesn't change."
If players on the team are bent out of shape over Wilson receiving favored treatment, it has yet to sink the ship.
The Seahawks have weathered their share of storms during Carroll's massively successful run in the Pacific Northwest. They invite their players to exude their true personalities -- and, so far, it's worked.