Facts about Russell Wilson
Russell Wilson Biography
Russell Wilson is the quarterback who led the Seattle Seahawks to victory in Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014.
Russell Wilson was born in Ohio but grew up in Virginia. He played his college football at North Carolina State (2007-10) and then Wisconsin (2011), and was selected in the third round of the 2012 NFL draft by the Seattle Seahawks.
Wilson had a strong college career, but he was widely considered too small (at 5’11” and just over 200 pounds) to be an NFL quarterback. Wilson immediately proved the doubters wrong, grabbing the starting job from the very first game of the season and winning fans with his speedy running and strong arm.
The Seahawks lost in the second round of the playoffs that year, but Wilson was named the NFL’s Rookie of the Year.
The next year he took the Seahawks all the way to Super Bowl XLVIII (played in 2014 after the 2013 season), where they dominated Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos, winning 43-8. Wilson then took the Seahawks to the Super Bowl again in the next season, but they lost Super Bowl XLIX to the New England Patriots.
Despite respectable showings in subsequent seasons, Wilson was traded in 2022 to the Denver Broncos, who signed him to a five-year, $242.6 million deal. Wilson’s first two seasons were a disappointment, with the team going 11-19 in his starts. In early 2024, he was released by the Broncos, even though Wilson’s contract meant that the Broncos owed him $39 million for the 2024 season, and would be stuck with $85 million in salary cap charges over two years.
Wilson then signed a one-year deal to play quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2024-25 season.
Extra credit
Russell Wilson wears jersey number 3… Russell Wilson married the R&B singer Ciara in 2016. They have three children together: a daughter, Sienna, born in 2017; a son, Win, born in 2020; and a daughter, Amora, born in 2023. Wilson was previously married to his high school sweetheart, Aston Meem, from 2012 until their divorce in 2014… Also an excellent baseball player, Russell Wilson was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the fourth round of the 2010 Major League Baseball draft. He played with the Asheville Tourists, a Class A Rockies affiliate, in the summer of 2011… Wisconsin played in the Rose Bowl in 2012, Wilson’s only year with the team… A 2012 article in the Seattle Times said that Russell Wilson is 5 feet 10-5/8 inches tall, rather than precisely 5’11”.