Whatever bitterness or hard feelings led to Russell Wilson’s departure from Seattle wasn’t evident when he spoke to media who cover the Seahawks Thursday afternoon.
Instead, Wilson — maybe expectedly, given the persona he perfected during his decade with the Seahawks — tried to keep things positive and forward-thinking during the roughly 10 minutes he spoke.
“Hopefully, it’ll be positive,” Wilson said when asked what kind of reception he thinks he might get from the 69,000-plus expected at Lumen Field Monday. “Listen, I gave my heart and soul every day. … I know they’ll be rowdy. I know they’ll be excited.”
About the closest Wilson came to revealing anything came when he was asked about talks he might have had with Seahawks coach Pete Carroll before the trade.
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Wilson said he didn’t want to go into “all the crazy details” but said he and Carroll talked several times before the trade on March 8.
“I was trying to figure out what the plan was and what we’re going to do with guys and what the plan was with Bobby (Wagner) and what the plan was with Duane (Brown) and me and just everything and the next 10 years of my career,” he said. “If you know Pete, if you know we always have hope, you always have belief and unfortunately I think around the (NFL scouting) combine time or sometime around then it just kind of changed and whatever. So, maybe a little even before then. … I was hoping that it would all work out and be able to figure out all the details out, and we weren’t able to do so.”
That led to the trade for three players and five draft picks (which the Seahawks have already turned into six), with Wilson landing in Denver where he has already signed a new five-year contract extension keeping him with the Broncos through the 2028 season when he will be 40.
“Starting over and having to revamp is a challenge,” Wilson said. “But I never feared any challenges, ever.”
Wilson said he still keeps in touch with some Seahawks, saying specifically he talks to receiver DK Metcalf weekly. He said he had talked with Wagner earlier in the day to wish him luck in the Rams’ game against Buffalo on Thursday night.
But he used most of his time to thank the Seahawks and Seattle.
“Seattle changed me for the better,” Wilson said. “It taught me about life. It taught me about relationships. I’m grateful for every second of it.”
And he reiterated that he had hoped until the end that he would be able to stay.
“I’ve always dreamed of being there my whole career,” Wilson said. “That was always my thought. I’ve always told you guys Derek Jeter (who spent his entire career with the Yankees) was my favorite athlete. But knowing that life is gonna change a bit and the time and energy I think spend in something and knowing that it’s sometimes not forever and it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t worthwhile, doesn’t mean that every second I wouldn’t do something different. I gave everything I had. So I cherish every second of it.”
This story will be updated.