Russell Wilson’s Contract Negotiation Becoming A Teen Relationship
For some reason, I thought that the contract negotiations between Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks would be different.
I thought that the Seahawks would appreciate that Russ played for barely above the league minimum as the starting quarterback for the best team in the NFL the past three seasons. And I thought that Russell Wilson would be the awesome teammate that he is and understand that he isn’t the best player in the league and accept a contract less than the $22 million that he would not be in the wrong for asking for.
Both sides have good reason for compromise, but alas, the old cliche about the NFL being a “business” even applies to the anomalies that are Russell Wilson and John Schneider. Months have passed since a the two sides were supposedly close to reaching an agreement, and attentions are turning elsewhere.
Here is Wilson talking about his time spent with the Texas Rangers in an interview with Bryant Gumble.
"RUSSELL WILSON: “I never wanna kill the dream of playing two sports. I would honestly play two sports.”BRYANT GUMBEL: “What’s stopping you?”RUSSELL WILSON: “I don’t know. I may push the envelope a little bit one of these days.”"
"“I know I can play in the big leagues. With the work ethic and all that, I think I definitely could for sure. And that’s why the Texas Rangers, you know, got my rights. And they want me to play. You know, Jon Daniels, the GM, wants me to play. We were talkin’ about it the other day.”"
There are two possibilities here:
1) Russell Wilson still really loves the game of baseball, and is considering giving it a shot at some point in his career.
2) He is making it look like he is considering leaving Seattle as a negotiating tactic.
The second option is much more likely, being that he is fresh off of back-to-back Super Bowl appearances and the face of the most exciting franchise in the NFL. Also, he is on the verge of signing a deal that would make him more money in one season than he would probably make in his entire baseball career.
And what’s John Schneider’s take on the whole issue?
"“Every negotiation is unique in and of itself and this is no different,” Schneider said in an interview with Dori Monson from KIRO Seattle. “It’s the ultimate team sport, he’s our quarterback, we’d love him to be our quarterback. But the thing is, we need to keep as many of these guys together as we possibly can…. We have to be able to protect ourselves as we go and make smart decisions in trying to keep this whole thing together as long as we possibly can…. What I can tell you is that this is the ultimate team sport, we have a track record of rewarding our players that we recognize as core players…. We’re going into our sixth draft now — I can’t believe that; we’ve been here for a while now — but just that track record of being able to make those tough decisions.”"
Wow. He’s pretty much saying that Seattle is willing to move on from Russell Wilson if his asking price is too high. Talk about your business decisions, my goodness…
In fact, I wouldn’t even say that a business dealing is the right way to describe what’s going on right now. More like, a high-school relationship.
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Think about it.
Russell Wilson is keeping his eyes open for other possible options (the Rangers), trying to make his suitor (the Seahawks) jealous. The Seahawks respond by saying “ehhhh whatever, we’ll be fine either way.”
It’s the old “whoever cares the least wins” situation, which usually only applies to teen relationships.
To extend the metaphor a bit further, these scenario’s typically end with both sides dropping the act and going on a date. The mutual attraction becomes too intense to hold back, and both sides realize that they need each other.
Let’s hope that Russ and the Seahawks are as mature.