Russell Wilson was having dinner with his wife, Ciara, when Walmart chairman Greg Penner called. There likely aren’t many people Wilson would have interrupted dinner to answer the phone.
“Oh, this is interesting,” Wilson said he saw it was Penner calling. “This must be good news.”
Penner didn’t waste any time in informing Wilson that Penner, his wife, Carrie Walton Penner, and his father-in-law, Rob Walton, had won the bidding war to become the Broncos’ new ownership group. The Walton-Penner group still needs approval from the league’s owners to finalize the transaction.
“I got to talk to them for a while, Greg and Carrie, and talked about a lot of stuff, and they got to meet ‘C’ a little bit, and then I talked to Mr. Walton the next morning, too,” Wilson said Monday, via Parker Gabriel of USA Today.
The Broncos traded for Wilson this offeason, and he will want/expect/need a contract extension in the near future. Wilson is under contract for the next two seasons, but his $35 million per year average ranks only in an eighth-place tie at the position.
So, his relationship with ownership will be important.
Wilson called it “an honor” to have already started a relationship with the family.
“I think in today’s football, that relationship between players and owners is so critical,” Wilson said. “We’re playing for ourselves and our families, but we’re playing for them, too. We’re playing for the whole city. To be able to have that bond and that relationship, you notice it a lot in basketball in particular, in some of the ownership groups and some in football, too. That’s been important.
“Even me and Ciara, owning a soccer team, it’s important to have those bonds, and they’ve done a tremendous job so far of that and that’s really exciting.”
