Russell Wilson Trade Rumor Advanced By Use Of Passive Voice

Let us be perfectly clear, here: The Seahawks are not “shopping” Russell Wilson. They are merely talking to interested “buyers” about what “price” they would “charge” if they “sold” him. It’s very different.

Incredible use of passive voice there, a good, old-fashioned reporter trick to cover your ass in case your sources get angry with the way you phrased something that they were hesitant to leak in the first place.

The NFL definition of “shopping” implies a proactive stance on wanting to get rid of a player. The strictly controlled messaging out of Seattle claims that this is not what they are doing with Wilson, but if you stick a fork into that word salad, it is exactly what they are doing. It’s Russell Wilson. The Seahawks don’t have to actively shop him to have interested buyers light up their phones. Not after Wilson made it clear that he would like to play somewhere else (even if that somewhere else is Chicago, where QBs go to die). In fact, there’s a nice symmetry here with the way Wilson’s agent leaked the news of his trade request: again, all passive voice. 

This might be the first blockbuster trade pulled off without any involved party taking any action at all. lt’s also the exact opposite of what is happening in Houston, where the quarterback has explicitly demanded a trade and the team is not listening to interested buyers. In Seattle, though nobody has actually said anything, there’s a lot more action going on.

In summary, a trade has not been requested by Russell Wilson, and the Seahawks are not trying to trade him. But if he had, and if they were, and if you were one of the teams he would totally hypothetically be willing to be traded to, and if you were to call, a telephone would be picked up.