Seahawks’ LB K.J. Wright tackling more than opponents this season
Nov 1, 2018, 11:57 AM | Updated: 12:02 pm
LB K.J. Wright made his 2018 debut in the Seahawks' win over the Lions. (AP)
(AP)
K.J. Wright’s return to the field Sunday carried a price tag, but it’s not one the Seahawks linebacker minds paying.
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This season, Wright is donating $300 per tackle to help build two wells at a school in Kenya as part of a community fundraiser. The project stems from a trip Wright took to Kenya earlier this year.
“I’m going back to Kenya next year, and when I was there (last time), I went to a school and noticed this girl had dirty, brown water,” Wright said during an interview with 710 ESPN Seattle’s Danny, Dave and Moore. “So I got to asking the people, ‘What’s the situation with this?’ And it is crazy — millions and millions of people lack the access to clean water. Millions. So I’m taking it upon myself to build a well in the community and the school that I went to visit. Because I absolutely love the place, I love the people, I just want to build a well.”
Wright wrote the first check of his campaign, totaling $1,500, following his five-tackle performance against the Lions. The veteran linebacker aims to fund the cost of two wells, which would total around $50,000.
‘A dominating defense’
Wright’s conversation with Danny, Dave and Moore followed his 2018 season debut with Seattle. Wright missed the first six weeks of the season recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery.
After spending nearly two months watching games from the sideline or his couch — often with teammate Kam Chancellor and former teammate Cliff Avril — Wright was glad to be sore after a game.
“You miss it,” he said. “You miss that stuff. It’ll be gone by Wednesday, get the massages and acupuncture… (but) it felt really good to get out there and just pick up things that you missed out on.”
As the longest-tenured Seahawk, Wright re-joined defense that looks very different from the one he spent most of his time with in Seattle. Yet through eight weeks, the comparably-young group ranks fifth in yards allowed per game (327) and second in turnover differential (10).
Does the personality of the defense feel different?
“I don’t think so,” Wright said. “It’s funny, I was talking yesterday. When I walked onto the football field, it was around the second or third quarter, when I was out there with my guys I had that feeling, like, ‘Man this is a dominating, intimidating defense.’ I don’t know where it came from, but it just came over my body. And I looked across at Detroit and I saw how they were looking at us, you just get that feeling like these dudes don’t want to play against us. I just had that feeling and I’m glad that we got that. That’s my (feeling) playing this week, and I don’t know if that’s been there, but I felt it and it felt really good.”
Listen to Wright’s full interview with Danny, Dave and Moore in the podcast embedded above, or here on the show’s podcast page.
