By the time his NFL career concludes, Russell Wilson may very well be remembered as one of the 10 greatest quarterbacks in the history of the league. Still, the 32-year-old believes that baseball was the sport he was best at, and that he's probably better than another former football star that's trying his luck on the diamond.
In a recent appearance on Pardon My Take, Wilson was asked, given his past in baseball, whether he's a better player at the sport than Tim Tebow.
"Good question, I'm gonna go with me," Wilson said. "I can turn a mean double play, Tim. I haven't see him play, though, but I think that if I had really focused on baseball...I was going to be a top pick out of high school and I ended up turning it down...I still got drafted late...but I always feel like baseball is actually my best sport."
Wilson was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the 41st round of the 2007 MLB Draft, and then again by the Colorado Rockies in the fourth round of the 2010 MLB Draft. Is it possible that if his full focus went towards baseball, rather than pursuing an NFL career, he could have been better than Tebow? Maybe, although Wilson did play 93 games in the lower levels of the Rockies' system in 2010 and 2011, and while he demonstrated good on-base skills, he hit just .229. Tebow was a Double-A All-Star in the New York Mets' system in 2018, although he has hit just .223 in his minor league career, while not showing the same ability to work a count that Wilson presented. Additionally, Wilson was a second baseman and Tebow plays in left field, so Wilson probably has more defensive prowess.
Still, while Wilson may be better than Tebow at baseball, it's quite a bold claim to say that baseball could have been his best sport. He's a Super Bowl Champion quarterback who has tossed 259 touchdowns to just 79 interceptions in parts of nine NFL seasons, while mixing in nearly 4,500 career rushing yards. He's almost certainly going to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame when his playing career concludes.
Ultimately, Wilson says that the demands of playing Division-I football kept him from being able to "fully blossom" as a baseball player. That he elected to allow football to get in the way of baseball, which he called "his love," suggests that deep down he knew that football was the sport he had the highest ceiling in. And Tebow would probably allow Wilson to be the better baseball player if it meant that he could have had the same type of NFL career Wilson is having.
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