Never Failed: The Russell Wilson Story, episode 1

By Joe Giglio, WRALSportsFan

The timing was uncanny.

I was sitting in an Irish bar in downtown Raleigh with Tom O’Brien, four days after he had been fired as NC State’s football coach.

On the TV behind him was Russell Wilson.

“There’s your guy,” I said, half joking with O’Brien, when I noticed Wilson’s name on ESPN.

Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon were wishing Wilson a happy birthday.

“He’ll never forgive me,” O’Brien said of Wilson.

I knew the answer but I asked anyway: “Why?”

O’Brien replied: “He just never saw it the way I did.”

The “it” in question was O’Brien’s decision to not bring Wilson back to NC State for the 2011 college football season.

Ten years after Wilson’s exit, a decision O’Brien said he made for what he thought was “best for NC State,” there are still questions and gaps in the story.

So what really happened?

With this podcast project, Joe Ovies and I are going to attempt to answer what seemingly is a simple question but definitely has a complicated answer.

We could not work out the schedule with Wilson, who has become one of the top stars in the NFL, to get his perspective. As we working on this project, the Seattle Seahawks quarterback has committed to give the commencement speech at NC State later this month.

I have talked to O’Brien, who retired from coaching in 2014 and moved to Charleston, a couple of times since we started the project. O’Brien, stubborn until the end, is not willing to be interviewed for it.

But we were able to talk Wilson’s former teammates, players who knew him from football at NC State and Wisconsin, and during his baseball career.

We talked to the coaches who recruited Wilson and worked with O’Brien at NC State. Over the next six episodes, we will share their insights

How did O’Brien let the only quarterback in ACC history to win a Super Bowl, walk out the door?

Or did he?

It depends on how you look at the story.