On Sunday, Chris Mortensen of ESPN created a bit of a whirlwind when he reported that Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson’s agent Bus Cook asked the team for a new contract even though the Collective Bargaining Agreement makes it impossible for a rookie to get a new deal after his first season.
Cook called the report “a bunch of bulls--t” and Mortensen later added an update to say that the request was made without Wilson’s knowledge. Now Wilson has addressed the report. Wilson spoke to Peter King of SI.com to say that he neither asked for nor desires a new contract that’s impossible for him to get at this point anyway.
“I speak for myself, and I never demanded or asked for a restructured contract. . . . I have complete understanding and respect for the new CBA rules. . . . Anyone who knows me knows I play for the love of the game. I play for the challenge of being the best one day and know I have a long way to go,” Wilson said. “I respect the NFL, respect the new CBA, respect my teammates, respect all of the other players across the league, and respect the Seattle Seahawks.”
The CBA makes it plain that a rookie cannot renegotiate or alter his existing contract until he’s played three years so the prospect of a new deal was never something to take seriously. Whether someone on Wilson’s team ignored that and made the request anyway is a different matter, one that should probably trouble Wilson if such a request truly was made without his knowledge.