Ricardo Lockette spoke out recently about that final pass in Super Bowl XLIX in an article for The Players Tribune. It is really quite an interesting read, and speaks to the quite and fundamental leadership Russell Wilson is bringing to the Seahawks.
Ricardo Lockette (the Rocket) is a super-speedy receiver who has always had a side-kick role on the Seahawks team. For those of us who can’t help but watch the cringe-inducing final play of the Super Bowl you can see that he was blindsided by Malcolm Butler who made a play on the football. Ricardo had a tough time getting over the incident until some advice he received from Russell this last April when they were in Hawaii training together.
Ricardo wrote, ” [Russell] looked at me and said, ‘We’re going to get back there, and if we’re in that same position again, I’m going to throw you the ball again. We’re going to get it done. I trust you’.”
Let me add my encouragement to that of Russell Wilson: If that situation ever comes up again, I trust Ricardo Lockette to be the one to make the play.