By: John Kurkjian
These days, anything can go viral. And I don’t mean COVID-19 viral, I mean socially viral. While it helps a decent amount if you’re already world-famous, or in this case, if you’ve won a Super Bowl, a kid literally got on The Ellen Degeneres Show years ago because he wore white Vans to school.
Well, that’s precisely what happened to Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson when the Broncos’ Twitter account posted a behind-the-scenes video in June of Wilson in uniform saying, “Broncos Country, let’s ride!” Wilson appears in his home orange uniform holding a football and instructed by a woman in the background to keep saying various phrases.
The video, which currently has 4.4 million views on Twitter alone, has been imitated by athletes, fans, and teams around the country because of Wilson’s awkward body language and unenthusiastic tone. Additionally, the team posted a video on TikTok of Wilson uttering the phrase during training camp which has since garnered 1.4 million views.
For “Dangeruss” Wilson, though, perhaps the only thing more awkward than his body language in the video is the quality of his team’s offense through 2 games this season, which has mustered just 32 points and has seen him complete just 58.9% of his passes.
Dylan Lyons, a lifelong Broncos fan, found the video to be funny and entertaining but says he’d trade in the laugh for on-field success from his favorite team in a heartbeat. “It’s been really fun seeing all the remakes on TikTok and Twitter and seeing Russ react to all of them, but for me, the trend can only really be funny if he’s playing well. And he’s just not right now.”
I mean, really, who would have thought that a blockbuster trade in the NFL would lead to a viral internet meme that carried into the 2022 regular season? Certainly not Russ.
College football teams made like-minded videos with their respective quarterbacks leading up to this season after the trend blew up, including West Virginia, South Carolina, and even Florida Atlantic.
Wilson, who played for the Seattle Seahawks for nine years and ironically won Super Bowl XLVIII over his current team, was traded to Denver on March 16 in exchange for quarterback Drew Lock, tight end Noah Fant, and defensive lineman Shelby Harris after Wilson requested a move.
To make matters worse, the Seahawks trolled him after their Week 1 upset of the Broncos on Monday Night Football by captioning their victory tweet, “Our ride continues.” Additionally, fans across the country began coming up with witty versions of Wilson’s iconic phrase. From “Broncos Country, let’s hide” to “Broncos Country, let’s have terrible clock and game management,” with the latter referring to the team’s late-game meltdown, the trend has only grown over time.
Will Hardy, a freshman at the University of North Carolina who plays safety on the school’s football team, was ecstatic when the team’s Twitter page captioned a training camp video with the phrase “Let’s ride.” “I loved it. I kept seeing it all over my ‘For You’ page on TikTok and everyone makes fun of it, so I’m glad we cashed in on the trend.”
Whether it’s on or off the gridiron, Wilson’s name is now in households around the world, but now the Broncos Country aren’t the only ones being told “Let’s ride.”
