Tag: Russell Wilson

Yankees Emphasize Russell Wilson over Cam Newton Qualities in Media Training

All New York Yankees can check their attitudes at the door—along with any other excessive outward emotions or opinions.

Following the trend of encouraging progressively more prescribed athlete reactions, the renowned baseball organization aimed to instill within its players the makings of a proper postgame interview.

Their subjects of study? Quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Cam Newton.

According to ESPN New York’s Andrew Marchand, the session went something like this: 

During the Yankees’ media training, the Super Bowl is being used to portray the right and wrong way to act. Part of a video shown to pitchers and catchers compares how Cam Newton handled his Super Bowl loss to the way Russell Wilson dealt with his defeat the previous year.

Sports fans are already well aware of the dichotomy between Wilson’s polite bow and Newton’s abrupt exit, but as many have pointed out, passion is a difficult thing to quell.

Wilson’s teammate Richard Sherman was mightily criticized for his own postgame outburst. Recently, fellow Seahawks defensive back Earl Thomas took to Twitter to criticize the NFL’s restrictions on individual expression. 

The various personalities seem to suit Seattle, but don’t expect the Yanks to be embracing the assortment of commentary. If tight-lipped is what they’re aiming for, however, perhaps Marshawn Lynch would have been the best example of all. 

[Yahoo Sports]

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People in Sports Who Had the Best and Worst Year Ever

In life, and in sports, nearly everyone experiences prolonged periods of both success and failure. Of course, the 2014 sports year was far from different, as fans were treated to some truly memorable performances, of both the good and bad sort.

Madison Bumgarner, for example, had a downright iconic year, establishing himself as one of baseball’s all-time greats with the type of postseason pitching we’d never seen before.

In a similar vein, Russell Wilson led his Seahawks to the mountaintop and, in so doing, catapulted himself into the upper echelon of NFL quarterbacks.

In contrast, however, Tiger Woods battled injury all year long and lost his spot atop golf’s world rankings, while Robert Griffin did the same and lost his stranglehold on the starting quarterback spot in Washington.

So, with these guys and others in mind, we’ve done our best to highlight 10 People/Teams in Sports who had the best/worst year ever.

We should note, we’ve dodged the heavier side of sports in 2014, excluding from our list major violators like Donald Sterling, Jameis Winston, Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice and Roger Goodell.

Instead, then, we’ve explored those who struggled for non-legal reasons, and exalted the athletes who had a dream 2014.

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Texas Rangers: What Twitter Is Saying as Spring Training Approaches

Spring training is just a couple of weeks away, and the Texas Rangers have two guys who are creating a lot of buzz.

Ironically, one player just won a Super Bowl, and the other pitched against the club last year.

Per MLB.com, Tommy Hanson and the Rangers agreed to a deal worth $2 million on Monday. He will be at spring training and has a good chance of making the starting rotation. He pitched for the Angels last season, starting 13 games and posting a 5.42 ERA.

As for Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, there still isn’t a definitive answer. It isn’t as if he is going to trade rubber spikes for metal ones, but he has gotten support from Texas fans to show up. 

Jeff Wilson explained the QB has the support from his newest agent:

Then fans got the news they had been waiting for:

Although he is showing up, it doesn’t look like he will be taking the field or making any plate appearances:

The High-A affiliate of the Rangers doesn’t want to take no for an answer. The team is willing to donate to a charity of Wilson’s choice in exchange for nine innings:

It was originally reported that Tommy Hanson had signed a minor league deal with the club. CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman cleared it all up on Tuesday:

Some fans were not too pleased with the team’s newest acquisition:

The Rangers now have a legitimate starter to fill the void left by Derek Holland’s knee surgery. Hanson’s ERA has dipped every year since his rookie season in 2009. That could be the epicenter of the disgust shown by the Rangers faithful.

But he isn’t going to be expensive. He could end up being a steal this offseason.

Wilson won’t be donning a Rangers uniform during the 2014 regular season, but the club can still benefit from his presence in Surprise, Ariz. Not because he just won the Super Bowl but because he has leadership qualities. He is also going to provide plenty of traffic at any complex he shows up to in March.

It would be fun to see what Wilson could do after a few years off the diamond.

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Seattle Seahawks’ Russell Wilson Appears on Texas Rangers Baseball Card

In the middle of the 2014 NFL Super Bowl week, Seattle Seahawks’ quarterback Russell Wilson is making his way around the Internet for appearing on a Texas Rangers baseball card.

NFL on Fox tweeted a picture of the Bowman brand baseball card on January 27.

Bowman brand is part of Topps, a popular baseball card company. Topps‘ marketing manager Marc Stephens spoke as to why the company decided to run with the card which is set to release in May, per Anthony Andro of Fox Sports Southwest in his January article.

There are two reasons we decided to put him in. First he switched teams. Plus, for the same reason the Rangers picked him up, he’s an exciting story, a big story. As soon as he switched teams we wanted a prospect card of him. It seemed like a good idea considering the success he’s had. We wanted to showcase a dual-sport athlete.

Could Wilson be a big story after the Super Bowl? Rangers’ general manager Jon Daniels is rooting for the Seahawks to win in hopes the, “Super Bowl MVP walks in [to spring training] two weeks later and puts on a Rangers’ uniform.” Richard Durrett of ESPN Dallas reported the quote via Twitter.

Wilson, who is 25 years of age, could see baseball as a new challenge after he conquers the NFL—winning the Super Bowl MVP would constitute as exactly that. Of course, there is no guarantee he makes the team and pans out, see Michael Jordan’s transition, but Wilson actually has some minor league experience. And looking even deeper into sport-to-sport transitions, Deion Sanders was a recent athlete who was successful in both football and baseball.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame cornerback was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the sixth round of the 1985 MLB draft, but elected to go to Florida State University. In 1988, Sanders was again drafted, this time in the 30th round by the New York Yankees. He actually made his MLB debut for the Yankees on May 31, 1989.

Sanders even thinks Wilson should seriously consider baseball as he tweeted this back in December of 2013.

Wilson was drafted in the fourth round of the 2010 MLB draft by the Colorado Rockies. He hit for a .230 and .228 batting average in two minor league seasons, respectively, before deciding to return to college with one year left of eligibility to play football for the University of Wisconsin.

Hey, maybe Daniels is onto something with Wilson and his athleticism. He’s currently listed to the Round Rock Express roster, the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate. Nonetheless, there really is the slimmest of chances Wilson makes his way to Arlington for a full season if he really does gear up and play.

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