Russell Wilson isn’t going anywhere, again to the surprise of no one

Leave it to the national media to jump on the “Russell Wilson demanded a trade” bandwagon the second there’s a bit of trouble with the Seahawks. I don’t know about you, 12s, but I’m sick of it.

Here we go again, 12s! According to a sea of writers, bloggers, podcasters, and various other soothsayers portending doom, Russell Wilson has given the Seahawks a list of three teams he’d consider as his future home. In this version of the story, Wilson would accept a trade to the Giants, the Broncos, or the Saints.

Gee, I remember last year, when he’d take a deal with the Dolphins, Jets, Raiders, or Saints. Except that rumor changed in about two days, and the four teams became the Cowboys, Bears, Raiders, or Saints. Maybe I should be worried about New Orleans, as that’s the only team that’s listed in all three rumors.

Russell Wilson is staying with Seahawks

Except I’m not, because that’s precisely what this is; a rumor. And as none other than John Clayton says, it’s a ridiculous one at that. Clayton wrote, “it’s the most ridiculous story I’ve ever covered.” Agreed, sir, agreed. As the estimable Clayton added, Wilson clarified the rumors by stating that he intended to fulfill his contract through 2023, and wants to stay for 20 years. I don’t know about you, but I trust Russell Wilson and John Clayton more than the assorted mob.

It seems that this time the rumor all started with one report, by sportswriter Jordan Schultz. Here’s the tweet that set off the latest firestorm of supposed Russell Wilson trades:

Seeing that this “story” was picked up literally thousands of outlets – a Google search of “Russell Wilson trade” returns 61,600,000 hits – it’s interesting that Schultz seems to be the only source for the story. Sports Illustrated, The Sporting News, NBC Sports, Bleacher Report, various Fan Nation sites, and yes, FanSided as well all trusted this single tweet as the source of the potential trade. Schultz quotes “sources”, the stock in trade of journalism as the genesis of the story.

We all get it. If you have a source this close to a top player that can give you information at this level, you can’t reveal them. But seeing that no one else appears to be an original source of the “story”, it seems a bit far-fetched to me. Either someone was just feeding him a  line to see if he was foolish enough to run with it, or this is no source. Listen, Schultz isn’t some nobody at his laptop, unlike me. He writes for ESPN and the HuffPost, among other major outlets. I’m pretty sure that he could have asked Russell Wilson for confirmation of these potential trade partners. Doesn’t seem like he did that, does he?

Now you may say that there’d be no point in confirming the story. Wilson would just deny it and ask him where he heard such a cockamamie idea. Yes, I can definitely hear Number 3 say “cockamamie”. The point would be that Schultz could then write; ” Sources: Russell Wilson would consider waiving no-trade clause; Wilson denies as cockamamie story”. See how that changes the entire conversation? You’d still get just as many hits, but at least it would have some journalistic integrity. Plus you could report that Wilson said cockamamie, and that’s one funny word.

Oh, I know we’ve written plenty of articles here on 12thManRising about this never-ending story. Back in June, Jake Luppino wrote why the trade rumors will never go away. As Jake prophetically and correctly wrote, the rumors would come up again whenever Seattle lost. I think it’s safe to say the Seahawks have done a bit more losing than winning this season. I have no doubt that in 2031, we’ll be reading that the 41-year-old Wilson is demanding a trade to either London, Mexico City, or sure, the Saints.