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Josh Weinfuss, ESPN Staff Writer
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Michael Wilson usually likes to take the field about 40 minutes before training camp practice starts.
On Monday and last Friday, he waited to start his warmup. He had Olympic soccer to watch.
Wilson’s fiancée is U.S. women’s national team star Sophia Smith, who made her Olympic debut last week, a year after playing in her first World Cup. With a nine-hour time difference between Arizona and Paris, Wilson was able to watch some of the first half of both of Smith’s games before he left the locker room for practice.
He gets updates on the field while walk-throughs and practice are going on from staff members, who, on Monday, kept Wilson abreast of Smith’s two-goal game in a 4-1 win over Germany in the group stage.
Wilson didn’t go to the Olympics like Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens will for a couple of days to support his wife, gymnast Simone Biles. Wilson, who’s in his second NFL season, said he may have asked if he was a seasoned vet in his sixth or seventh year.
“It’s too important of a year to miss,” he said.
Wilson has watched Smith from afar on a world stage before.
A year ago at this time, Smith was in New Zealand with the USWNT for the World Cup. Wilson tried to catch the final minutes of her games once meetings ended at night. This year, it’s a bit easier not having to deal with a 19-hour difference.
“It feels like the same thing as last year,” he said. “So, it prepared me big time.”
The two met as freshmen at Stanford University and he’s been alongside her during her evolution into an international star. But Wilson isn’t surprised.
“I don’t think anyone’s shocked,” he said. “It’s not like she was some underrated player that took the world by storm. She’d been in the national team [program] since she was 16. Now she’s kind of coming in her own and realizing, like fulfilling the prophecy.
“But it’s really cool to see because there’s a lot of people that get nodded as like the next great, the chosen one. Not all the time it works out. But I’m not shocked that it’s happening for her because not only is she extremely, extremely talented, like rarely, rarely talented, kind of like how [Cardinals rookie wide receiver] Marvin [Harrison Jr.] is, and some of the greats are, but she also has the love for the game and does all the little things off the field. So, the sky’s the limit.”
Wilson proposed to Smith on June 14 in Peninsula Park Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon, after planning the occasion for months. Two days earlier, Smith was in Arizona but Wilson told her that he had the upcoming weekend off and that he would have workouts the next week. In reality, the Cardinals had completed their offseason program on June 12 and Wilson was free for the summer.
Smith flew back to Portland on the night of June 13 and went to practice with her team, the Portland Thorns of the NWSL, the next day. Wilson had worked with her agency, which had worked with Nike to tell Smith the shoe company was hosting a dinner for a number of Olympic athletes to talk about their plans for the Paris Games.
Wilson said it ensured that Smith would be dressed up and, most importantly, have her nails done. Wilson sent a private car to pick her up for what she thought was a drive to the Nike dinner, but in reality was to the Peninsula Park Rose Garden, where Wilson awaited.
Smith said yes when Wilson proposed, and awaiting her were both of their parents, whom Wilson had flown in.
“Honestly, if I could like put a measurement on it, it was like a 12 out of 10,” Wilson said. “It was, like, if there was a unit that I could measure, it was a 12 out of 10. It was everything I could imagine and more.
“Everything went perfectly right. I didn’t slip up, didn’t fumble over my words. It honestly was one of the best days of my life, truthfully.”