Baseball wasn’t contract leverage for Russell Wilson, after all – NBCSports.com

Russell WilsonAP

Earlier this year, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson said that his baseball hobby isn’t a contract ploy. And it apparently wasn’t, because his new deal doesn’t include a no-baseball clause.

PFT has confirmed a smattering of reports that, indeed, Wilson’s new deal doesn’t prevent him from playing baseball. In contrast, the contract signed in May by Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston expressly prevents him from playing baseball.

Other players have a similar clause, including Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel.

It’s unknown whether the Seahawks asked for a no-baseball clause or whether Wilson’s agent, Mark Rodgers, offered such a clause in exchange for more money. Regardless, with Wilson making it clear that he’d like to play baseball and football, that he thinks he could play both, and that he’d “definitely consider” it if his rights were traded by the Texas Rangers to the Seattle Mariners, the issue possibly isn’t dead but merely dormant.