Russell Wilson Talks Losing His Dad the Day After Being Drafted Into the MLB and How That Affected His Choice Between the MLB and the NFL

Russell Wilson Talks Losing His Dad the Day After Being Drafted Into the MLB and How That Affected His Choice Between the MLB and the NFL

“The reality is is that it was the hardest decisions I had to make,” that’s how Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson describes choosing between football and baseball. As many of Wilson’s fans know, Wilson wasn’t just a star on the football field but was also a star on the diamond as well.

During an interview with comedian Kevin Hart on his YouTube show, Cold Calls, Wilson opened up about how he ultimately made the decision to go pro in football rather than in baseball. According to the soon-to-be dad of three, right out of high school, he got calls in the late first and second rounds of the MLB draft.

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But because he wasn’t getting monetary offers he liked, he decided to forego going straight into the pros and accept his offer at North Carolina State to play both football and baseball at the collegiate level. “I thought, ‘If it’s meant for me, it’s going to come back to me,'” Wilson told Hart.

However, as soon as Wilson began his collegiate career at NC State, his father, Harrison Wilson, fell ill due to diabetes complications. “That was a tough time for me in my life,” Wilson said, it was when he became a man.

Nonetheless, Wilson persevered. For two years, the quarterback shined at NC State and on June 8, 2010, Wilson was drafted into the MLB again. Then on June 9, 2010, his father passed away. “From the highest of the high to the lowest to the low, just like that.”

It was then that Wilson felt he had to “take control of his own career, my own life, my own destiny and make the decisions that I needed to make.” And that’s when he choose to forego the MLB again and transfer to the University of Wisconsin to play two more years of football.

In 2012, Russell was drafted by the Seahawks and the rest, as he said, is history. Coming into the Seahawks organization, Wilson was a third string quarterback, but after working his way to the starting position by the end of the preseason, all he could think about was his dad.

“I just started thinking about my dad, all of the stuff I had been through in my life. All the hard work. And it all came to fruition.” How inspiring a story is that?

Sara Vallone

Sara Vallone has been a writer and editor for the last four and a half years. A graduate of Ohio University, she enjoys celebrity news, sports, and articles that enhance people's lives.