Russell Wilson has said on multiple occasions he plans to play until his mid-40s.
Wilson, who turns 33 later this month, is in his 10th NFL season.
He told Rob Maaddi in an upcoming episode of the AP Pro Football Podcast that missing three games after finger surgery -- the first games he has missed in his career -- only reinforced his goal.
“I knew I was wildly crazy about the game, but I’m ridiculously obsessed with it,” Wilson said. “That’s why I want to play 20-plus years. I think the other part that you learn about yourself is to have patience. At the same time, you have to have drive. I think that’s such a critical part. The third thing is (having) unrelenting confidence. You don’t want to mistake that with arrogance. It’s strictly confidence in what you do and how you do it and you’ve done it before, and we’ll do it again and with great faith, all things are possible, and that’s really what’s been very evident to me in my journey.”
Wilson, who returned to start Sunday’s loss to the Packers, has other plans after his playing career. Already a minority owner in Seattle’s Major League Soccer franchise, the Sounders, Wilson wants to own an NFL team.
“I definitely want to play for a long time, but I think once I’m done, I’d love to own an NFL football team and to be able to impact a city, a country and just bring people to the game of football,” Wilson said. “I’m very big into the business side of things and just sports in general. I love winning. I love the process of winning. So hopefully I can bring that culture to a team and organization.”
In 2018, the Panthers sold to hedge fund billionaire David Tepper for $2.275 billion. So Wilson probably needs to play as long as he can play to make as much as he can make to afford an NFL team.