Russell Wilson Responds To Report Claiming He Asked For Pete Carroll & John Schnider To Be Fired While In Seattle

Russell Wilson tried to bring major changes to Seattle before being traded to Denver.

According to The Athletic‘s Kalyn Kahler, Mike Sando and Jayson Jenks, Wilson asked Seahawks ownership to fire head coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider after the 2021 season.

Bombshell: Russell Wilson asked #Seahawks ownership to fire coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider last year, sources told @TheAthletic

The team instead traded him to the #Broncos https://t.co/p6F8s9YFly pic.twitter.com/tLKOlQYFTX

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) February 24, 2023

Per the report, Wilson’s request came after he was “convinced” Carroll and Schneider “were inhibiting his quest” to win more Super Bowls and receive individual accolades.

Wilson took to Twitter to deny the report, calling Carroll a “father figure” and acknowledging Schneider for drafting and believing in him:

I love Pete and he was a father figure to me and John believed in me and drafted me as well. I never wanted them fired. All any of us wanted was to win.

l’ll always have respect for them and love for Seattle.

— Russell Wilson (@DangeRussWilson) February 24, 2023

The report added that Wilson even had Sean Payton in mind as his preferred replacement for the Seahawks.

One member of Wilson’s camp also denied the report, while members of the Seahawks and Broncos declined to comment.

“A lawyer for Wilson wrote a letter to The Athletic characterizing the assertion that Wilson called for Carroll’s and Schneider’s firing as ‘entirely fabricated.’ The Seahawks declined to comment for this story,” the report states. “Hackett and Broncos GM George Paton declined to comment through representatives.”