Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson recently spoke at the University of Wisconsin's commencement ceremony over the weekend. Wilson, who transferred to Wisconsin after three years of football at NC State, spoke about proving your doubters wrong during his speech. During the ceremony, which was transcribed by ESPN, Wilson said that while he was at N.C. State, one of his former coaches told the quarterback that he would never have what it takes to make it in the NFL. Wilson said the comments stemmed after Wilson was playing minor league baseball and decided to play football again in the fall.
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"The summer before my senior year of college, I'm playing minor-league baseball. I called my football coach at NC State and said, 'Hey coach, I'd like to come back for my senior year.' He told me I wasn't coming back. He said, 'Listen son, you're never going to play in the National Football League. You're too small. There's no chance. You've got no shot. Give it up.' Of course, I'm on this side of the phone saying, 'So you're telling me I'm not coming back to NC State? I won't see the field?' He said, 'No son, you won't see the field.' Now this was everything I had worked for. And now it was completely gone. If I wanted to follow my dream I had to leave NC State. I had no idea if I would get a second chance somewhere else."
The rest was, well history. Wilson transferred to Wisconsin and threw for 3,175 yards, 33 touchdowns and just four picks in 2011 while leading the Badgers to the Rose Bowl. He was drafted by Seattle in the third round (No. 75 overall) of the 2012 NFL draft, and then of course went on to win the Super Bowl in 2013.
We'll see if we can find out just exactly who this coach was who said this. You can check out the entirety of Wilson's commencement speech by going to ESPN's story here.
