SEATTLE — K.J. Wright was such a prolific Seahawk that he’s enshrined in the franchise’s top 50 players in the 50 years of franchise history.
He was a key piece of the Super Bowl-winning team that forever made Seattle history.
In short, he’s done plenty for our city.
Yet, several years after retirement and even now working as an assistant coach for the San Francisco 49ers, K.J. continues to give back.
In his latest endeavor, K.J. has been teaching a financial literacy course for students at Rainier Beach High School in Seattle. The course is two times a week and teaches students lessons not normally taught in a traditional curriculum.
“You look at finances, it’s all something we have to learn, some people learn the easy way and people learn the hard way,” Wright told me Thursday.
“So for these kids to learn at 17, 18 years old, they’re getting a really good head start. I know when I got to the NFL, I had very limited financial understanding. It’s not taught in schools enough, it’s not talked about in households enough, and to come out and talk to these kids every Monday, every Wednesday, it gives important life lessons they’re going to carry with them for the rest of their lives,” Wright said.
Wright says the students learned about compound interest, credit, real estate, how to save, and how to invest, among other things over the past few months.
As a reward for their hard work and initiative to take the classes, K.J. had something special in the works.
With the 49ers on bye this week, K.J. could return to Seattle and visit with his students in person.
The students filed onto a bus Thursday morning knowing they were taking a field trip with K.J., but not sure where they were going.
Some were still perplexed when the bus pulled up to Target on Strander Boulevard in Tukwila.
Then K.J. let them know that they each had a budget $400 to spend on Christmas shopping, thanks to K.J.’s “Wright Way Foundation,” but they had to apply the financial lessons to keep under budget.
“It means a lot to me because I love Christmas, it’s my favorite, so I was really happy I could go and spend the money, but not on myself, but for my friends and my family, so I really liked this experience,” said Rainier Beach senior Nadjh Mychel.
“Yesterday was a phenomenal day, they presented to their parents, to their friends. Just to give these kids the platform to learn about financial literacy. To just be educated on it meant the world to me, so super thankful to come out here and do a little shopping spree.”
In his career, K.J. tallied 992 total tackles, 13.5 sacks, 6 interceptions, 11 forced fumbles, and 9 fumble recoveries.
He won the Super Bowl.
Yet, the impact he made by choice for these students. Nobody told him he had to help out a Seattle school after his playing days ended. Nobody said he had to teach kids something he wished he knew at their age.
That’s the legacy K.J. is making that will last a lifetime for these Rainier Beach students.