Most don’t expect Russell Wilson, one of the NFL’s most promising young quarterbacks, to ditch his football career to give baseball another shot, or even try splitting his time between the two sports.
But the last man who successfully juggled both football and baseball believes the Seahawks quarterback — and recent Texas Rangers draftee — should give it some serious thought.
Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, who starred in both the NFL and MLB for the first six years of his career, tweeted Thursday that if he were Wilson, he would “seriously consider baseball.”
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The Rangers scooped up Wilson, who played in the Rockies system before returning to college and being drafted by the Seahawks, with the 15th overall pick in the Triple-A phase of MLB’s Rule 5 draft on Thursday.
Texas general manager Jon Daniels told ESPN’s Richard Durrett that the Rangers don’t have any “real hopes” of Wilson giving up football, but the quarterback is expected to attend spring training in February.
“Daniels talked to Wilson this morning and made it a point to tell him the club isn’t trying to distract him and won’t be bothering him until after the football season,” Durrett writes. “But Wilson is excited he was drafted and told Daniels he wants to come to spring training. If the QB does, I’d expect him to do more than walk around and chat with the players like some dignitary. He’ll probably want to take grounders, go through workouts and attempt to improve.”
Wilson played 93 games as a second baseman with Colorado’s Class A and short-season affiliates in 2010 and 2011, batting .229 with five home runs, 28 RBIs and 19 stolen bases.
Photo via Twitter/@Iconic_Sports
