Russell Wilson is at the heart of a potential NFL scandal, but the New York Giants quarterback is not in any sort of trouble.
During a video exclusive that dropped on June 24, investigative journalist Pablo Torre and Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio discussed a 61-page document revealing the details of a closed-door court hearing between the NFL owners and the NFL Players Association.
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Per Torre, “NFL commissioner Roger Goodell; three star quarterbacks (Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray, and Russell Wilson); eight (!) owners; NFLPA leaders; and various powerful agents and executives” all provided “witness testimony” at this hearing.
“[The document] also includes details about a closed-door presentation for all 32 NFL owners at an annual meeting, in the wake of the Cleveland Browns’ unprecedented, fully guaranteed contract for Deshaun Watson (The trigger for this whole saga),” Torre wrote in his introduction.
The overall basis of Torre and Florio’s investigation? A “towering allegation of collusion, levied against the most powerful men in the most powerful sport in the United States.”
Torre shared a clipped portion of his full-length video on X. In it, he and Florio explain Wilson’s part in this mess — which centers around the NFL owners being accused of colluding with one another and the league office’s “NFL Management Council” to universally dish out less fully guaranteed money to players in contracts.
EXCLUSIVE: Did a text calling Russell Wilson a “wuss” lead to the cover-up of NFL owners colluding against players?
@PabloTorre and Mike Florio (@ProFootballTalk) reveal the secret document that billionaires and union execs don’t want you to see: t.co/qEkxrqNmjB
“According to this document — this concealed arbitration ruling in a landmark NFL collusion case — it was discovered that [former NFLPA president] J.C. Tretter ‘exchanged texts expressing frustration with Mr. [Russell] Wilson’s non-fully guaranteed contract [with the Denver Broncos],’” Torre explained.
Continuing: “And the answer to what J.C. Tretter said, that he wanted suppressed, according to this theory, is at least partly contained in a separate document. The transcript of a text exchange from July 8, 2024, which was filed as part of this whole legal proceeding.”
Torre then reported the details of said text exchange, which featured Tretter sending “a series of text messages” to then-executive director of the players’ union, DeMaurice Smith. In them, Torre reports that Tretter called Wilson a “wuss” and an “expletive” (that he did not reveal) for not pushing for a fully guaranteed contract from Denver.
As Torre and Florio go on to explain, this is all important because Tretter’s Wilson comments were then utilized by the owners as “evidence of non-collusion.”
“J.C. Tretter was blaming the player, instead of the owners, and the owners were like — this feels like a very helpful bit of evidence for what we’re trying to prove — which is that this case should be dismissed,” Torre relayed, noting that ultimately, “not unrelatedly,” the case was dismissed.
Although Wilson, Jackson and Murray’s respective contract negotiations were the focus of this court case and investigation, Torre and Florio told viewers that the initial case alleged that billionaire team owners had “illegally conspired with the league office” against nearly 600 veteran players.
“At some point during this litigation, this collusion grievance that was filed… it went from three quarterbacks to 594 players,” Florio added.
“And that’s important because, number one, I didn’t know that. I hadn’t heard that… You take 594 players, and if there’s ultimately a finding of collusion, the damages would have been in the billions if they had won this.”
Unfortunately, as Torre interjected, the NFL players’ union did not win the case. And Tretter’s tirade about Wilson likely played a role in that, as well as the ability of the powers that be to sweep this potential NFL scandal under the rug.
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