Could Russell Wilson become the next quarterback of the New York Giants? That’s the subject of an extremely dodgy rumor pushed by TV host Colin Cowherd this week.
Wilson, a quarterback, has played for his entire career up to this point with the Seattle Seahawks, which has included two Super Bowls, one of which Seattle won. But according to Cowherd, who cited a source in the “entertainment agent world,” Wilson’s wife, the singer Ciara, “would prefer to be in New York.”
Therefore, because the Giants need a quarterback for after the expected departure of Eli Manning, there’s a possible match for Wilson to end up on the Giants. Cowherd said this on the show Wednesday, as shared on the show’s Twitter account.
This is a very thin report. The “entertainment agent world” source, it appears, only referenced the part about Ciara wanting to be in New York, while the Wilson part is pure conjecture. It’s possible that Wilson’s camp leaked the scenario in order to force a trade to New York, but a radio and TV host like Cowherd isn’t the usual conduit for NFL transaction maneuvering. And there’s been no indication this offseason of a Wilson trade demand from any of the major NFL reporters.
The host also says that Wilson is “kind of buried” in the Pacific Northwest. But the NFL, in which all games are on national television, has much less of a large market/small market divide than other sports. It also has much less of a tradition than baseball or basketball of star players forcing themselves to large cities like New York and Los Angeles. Wilson has always had high-profile endorsements.
Cowherd has done this sort of thing before, pushing trade speculation based on the supposed geographical preferences of an athlete’s wife or girlfriend. Last summer, he speculated (per USA Today ) that Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers would eventually force a trade to the Los Angeles Lakers to be closer to his girlfriend Kendall Jenner. No such thing ever happened, and Simmons is several years away from unrestricted free agency anyway.
So @ColinCowherd dropped a bomb on Wednesday, and there may be something to it https://t.co/NJ3HK5HDgI
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) February 21, 2019
Wilson has only one year left on his contract with Seattle, and according to ESPN , the two sides haven’t yet discussed an extension, although coach Pete Carroll said at the end of the season that a new deal for Wilson is “very much in our plans.”
Could Russell Wilson replace Eli Manning in New York? @ColinCowherd is hearing things… ?? pic.twitter.com/r8rZY0Qbqr
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) February 20, 2019
The monologue has other howlers. Cowherd states that college quarterbacks have more leverage than NFL quarterbacks because they can transfer, while seemingly forgetting that college players, in addition to not being paid to play, must sit out a year after transferring. He also notes that Aaron Rodgers, who has signed multiple contract extensions with the Green Bay Packers and therefore never reached free agency, is “trapped” on that team.