Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson has been traded – from the Texas Rangers to the New York Yankees.
The MLB’s Rangers selected Wilson in the Triple-A portion of the Rule 5 draft during the winter meetings in December
2013
Authentic
Deadrin Senat Jersey , about two months before he led the Seahawks to a
win over Denver in the Super Bowl.
On Wednesday, Texas traded Wilson to the Yankees for future considerations.
Wilson spent a day in uniform with the Rangers at spring training in Surprise, Arizona, in 2014 without appearing in a game, and made another cameo
appearance at camp the following spring. An infielder, Wilson hit .229 in two
seasons in the low minor leagues in Colorado’s system in 2010-11.
The 29-year-old Wilson is expected to be in the Yankees major league camp in March, where he will participate in pregame workouts and watch games from the
Yankees dugout while in Florida. He will be assigned to the Double-A Trenton
roster.
”We’ve admired Russell’s career from afar for quite some time,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said.
”This is a unique opportunity for us to learn from an extraordinary athlete who has reached the pinnacle of his profession. After talking to a number of our
players, there is a genuine excitement in having Russell join us for a short
time in camp.”
Wilson issued a statement thanking the Rangers for giving him the chance to experience professional baseball again.
”Growing up taking grounders, hitting BP, and throwing deep post routes early in the mornings with my dad and brother is where my love of sports came from,
and those memories stick with me every morning I wake up,” Wilson said.
”I remember how excited I was when Texas selected me in the Rule 5 Draft in December 2013. During my two springs in Arizona with the
Rangers
Authentic
Ito Smith Jersey , I was reminded just how much I love the game of
baseball.”
A two-sport athlete in college, Wilson graduated from North Carolina State University in 2010. In 2011, he left the Rockies organization for football to be
a graduate transfer at Wisconsin, leading to the Badgers to a share of the Big
Ten title and a Rose Bowl appearance before the Seahawks took him in the third
round of the 2012 NFL draft.
”While football is my passion and my livelihood, baseball remains a huge part of where I came from and who I am today,” Wilson said.
”I’ve learned so much on the baseball field that translates to my game physically and mentally playing quarterback in the NFL. … While I embrace the
chance to be a New York Yankee, I will forever be grateful to have been a part
of a world class organization like the Texas Rangers.”
—
More MLB baseball:
The Buffalo Bills’ long-awaited playoff appearance might not have been so short-lived had their coaching staff played the percentages and not a hunch in
their 10-3 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
On first-and-goal from the Jaguars 1, coach Sean McDermott and offensive coordinator Rick Dennison elected to call a run-pass option instead of asking
quarterback Tyrod Taylor to either run it in himself or hand it off to running
back LeSean McCoy against one of the most vulnerable run defenses in the
playoffs.
”I want a running play,” McCoy said. ”It was a play I was lobbying for the whole time and it didn’t work out …”
Instead, Taylor lofted a fade pass toward the left corner of the end zone where Kelvin Benjamin was whistled for offensive pass interference on All-Pro
cornerback Jalen Ramsey, pushing the Bills back 10 yards.
The drive stalled from there and Stephen Haushka’s 31-yard field goal was all the Bills had to show for their 18-play, 71-yard drive that took 8:06, their
only decent drive all game.
McDermott also botched the end of the first half by calling pass plays on second-and-6 at his 14 (incomplete) and the next down (5-yard completion to Zay
Jones in which he was pushed out of bounds).
Instead of taking a knee and heading to the locker room with a 3-0 lead
Authentic
James Daniels Jersey , the Bills gave the Jaguars the ball back with
enough time to get into field goal range and score and gain some momentum
heading into the locker room.
The Bills’ curious play call, however, paled in contrast to the series of odd calls by referee Jeff Triplette’s playoff crew in Kansas City, where the
Tennessee Titans overcame an 18-point halftime deficit to shock the Chiefs
22-21.
”Horrible way to start the playoffs,” tweeted Mike Pereira , the former NFL officiating chief turned Fox sports analyst. ”I hate to say it, but this was not
a good performance by the crew. Teams and fans deserve better.”
A day later, Pereira praised both Tony Corrente’s crew in New Orleans and John Hussey’s crew in Jacksonville, adding, ”Yesterday is a memory. I feel bad
for Jeff Triplette. He is a great man who was part of a crew that did not have a
good game. I feel bad that he is retiring under this cloud.”
After Marcus Mariota caught his own deflected pass for a touchdown Saturday, Triplette explained that the Titans quarterback was an eligible receiver because
he had lined up in the shotgun formation rather than under center.
There is no such rule in the NFL.
Whenever a defensive player deflects a pass, every offensive player is allowed to catch the ricochet, including the quarterback and it matters not
where he lined up when the play began.
Then
Lance Kendricks Jersey , there was the very quick whistle that negated a fumble
recovery by Justin Houston after fellow linebacker Derrick Johnson sacked
Mariota in the second quarter.
Mariota fumbled a split-second after contact, but Triplette said the QB’s forward progress had been stopped before the fumble.
Forward progress is usually called when a running back is stopped and defenders are piling on him or several defenders drape a quarterback.
Hardly ever is it applied when a QB is going to the ground on initial contact by a single defender.
As a judgment call, Chiefs coach Andy Reid was helpless to throw his red challenge flag, and Ryan Succop kicked a field goal on the next play.
”The defender hit him and he was driving him back,” Triplette said after the game.
The officials had one more gaffe in them, one that was corrected on replay review.
The crew initially called a fumble on Titans running back Derrick Henry late in the fourth quarter, signaling touchdown when Johnson scooped up the ball and
rumbled into the end zone as fireworks lit up the sky.
The replays showed he was down before the ball came loose.
Before wild-card weekend began, there were several notable calls concerning the Cincinnati Bengals.
Bills fans giddy over Buffalo ending the longest playoff drought in North American pro sports made a surge in donations to Andy Dalton’s foundation ,
their way of thanking the Bengals QB for his role in the Bills’ first invitation
to the postseason party in 17 years.
Dalton’s foundation received more than $300,000 in donations after the Bengals beat the Ravens 31-27 in the regular-season finale when Dalton threw a
49-yard TD pass with 44 seconds left to eliminate Baltimore and open a spot for
Buffalo.
”I think I’m the hottest guy in Buffalo right now,” Dalton said.
While the Bills’ long streak of playoff futility is over, the Bengals’ streak continues. They haven’t won a playoff game since the 1990 season, the
sixth-longest streak of postseason futility in NFL history. They’ve lost all
seven of their playoff games since that
season
Jamaal
Williams Jersey , including an NFL-record five straight first-round
defeats from 2011-15.
The Bengals missed out on the playoffs for a second straight season, going 7-9. They won their last two games, knocking the Lions and Ravens out of the
playoff race.
That was enough for owner Mike Brown to give coach Marvin Lewis a two-year extension and two more chances to try to get the Bengals that playoff victory
that has eluded him for 15 seasons.
Lewis has the second-longest active coaching tenure in the NFL, behind only Bill Belichick’s 18 seasons with New England.
Unlike Belichick, who has won five Super Bowls and made two other appearances in the title game, Lewis is 0-7 in the playoffs, the worst such coaching record
in NFL history.
In Denver, John Elway thought long and
