Seahawks blame Russell Wilson for leaving

Happy Russell Wilson Day, Broncos Country!

If you have not watched the introductory presser with the Denver Broncos new starting quarterback, then you should give it a try. Russell Wilson commanded the room and gave some incredibly detailed answers. One of those questions he was asked was definitely not on the pre-game schedule as it came through during the presser.

The Seattle Seahawks, in announcing their trade of Wilson, released multiple statements from their front office team on the reasoning for the trade. In short, they seemed to put it all on Wilson. First came the owner, Jody Allen.

“While Russell made it clear he wanted this change, he made Seattle proud and we are grateful for his decade of leadership on and off the field,” said Jody Allen, chair of the Seattle Seahawks. “We look forward to welcoming our new players and to everyone being fully engaged while working our hardest to win every single day. I trust our leadership to take us into the future, and know we all wish Russell the very best.”

Then Pete Carroll repeated the company line that Wilson pushed this trade.

“This has always been a challenging time of year where we have consistently maintained a competitive approach to getting better as a team,” said Head Coach Pete Carroll. “As Jody stated, Russ’ desire in doing something different afforded the organization an opportunity to compete in multiple ways. He has always been the ultimate competitor whose leadership and consistency helped shape our culture. Our franchise has won a lot of games and we will always be grateful for the exciting moments and incredible records.”

And finally, general manager John Schneider added that Wilson was interested in playing elsewhere and that was the opportunity the Seahawks took to move in a different direction.

“When it became evident that Russell was interested in playing elsewhere,” Schneider said, “we used that opportunity to explore the market, allowing us to acquire three quality players, tremendous draft capital, and create salary cap flexibility. We have a clear vision about the direction of this team, and this is an exciting time for our organization.”

Then again, what else can a team do other than blame the outsider when they themselves decided to choose Pete Carroll over Russell Wilson. Imagine what would have happened had Pat Bowlen chosen Dan Reeves over John Elway, except that is exactly what John Schneider did here.

Hit with these claims from his former team in the moment, Wilson took the high road. The only one of the four to speak on this issue to do so today.

“Yeah, I didn’t initiate it,” Wilson said on Wednesday. “It was definitely mutual. Along the way, there’s definitely been a lot of conversations and it hasn’t been initiated. But it is what it is. I’m just happy to be here, that’s all I know. Obviously, I’m happy about the 10 years I’ve had, but I think we’ll have to read about it later. We’ll have some fun, maybe in my book one day. We’ll have some stories.”

Wilson spent a good part of his opening statement praising the Seahawks, the City of Seattle, and their fans only to have these sour comments come out. Very classless by the Seahawks organization if you ask me.

When the Seahawks realize, as we all well know after the last six seasons we Broncos fans have endured, that winning games in the NFL gets immeasurably more difficult without a quality starting quarterback they will realize how big of a mistake they made in choosing Pete Carroll over Russell Wilson.

That leaves me with a mean poll for today. Which pair gets fired first?