“It’s a significant portion he would have to return,†said Marc Gustafson, the Rockies’ senior director of player development.
Gustafson also said it would be difficult for Wilson, who is struggling offensively with the Tourists, to return to baseball if he played football this fall.
“It would be hard for him to come back to baseball because he would miss a lot of games and have had so much time away,†Gustafson said.
“It’s an interesting scenario,†Gustafson said. “He’s a premium athlete who doesn’t know what he wants to do. Until we know something different, we consider him to be a baseball player only.
“Would we be disappointed if he chose to play football? Yes, we would.â€
Hopefully the people who can’t seem to understand why Tom O’Brien made the decision to not allow star quarterback Russell Wilson’s return in 2011 are starting to get it. Russell has reached the point in his career where playing both sports severely hurts his chances of advancing professionally in either sport and at the same time puts the organizations that have supported him up until this point in limbo.
Russell wanting to play football this Fall is perfectly acceptable. However, why didn’t Russell just delay signing a pro baseball contract to remain enrolled in school, play baseball for NC State with part-time participation in Spring football so that Tom O’Brien and Mike Glennon, who graduated and could have left NC State play immediately this season, would know exactly where Russell stands on playing college football this Fall? What was the hurry to sign a pro baseball contract especially when his baseball career up until that point was a struggle while he had flourished on the grid iron?
Even if his size would eventually keep him out of the NFL, then he could have made more money playing football in the Canadian Football League in the long-term than being a minor leaguer that never makes the Major League.
I hope he plays football this Fall. I will pull for his success at Auburn or Wisconsin or wherever he ends up. However, Russell’s continued indecisiveness shows exactly why Tom O’Brien made the right choice in this situation.
