Texas Rangers won’t interfere with Russell Wilson’s NFL career

For the past two years, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson has channeled his inner Bo Jackson by making a couple of one-day, spring-training appearances for the Texas Rangers.

Wilson, whose rights were acquired by the Rangers in the Rule 5 draft in December 2013, has said in the past he would love to play professional baseball. He revealed more about his aspirations of becoming a two-sport athlete during an interview with HBO’s “Real Sports” that will begin airing Tuesday.

“I never want to kill the dream of playing two sports,” Wilson said. “I would honestly play two sports.

“That’s why the Texas Rangers got my rights. They want me to play. Jon Daniels, the [general manager], wants me to play. We were talking about it the other day.”

Daniels, however, said the Rangers weren’t planning to poach Wilson from the Seahawks. Speaking to reporters Saturday, Daniels said he hadn’t tried to persuade Wilson to give up his helmet for a cap and glove.

“Russell has the competitiveness and work ethic to where he’d have a shot if he committed to baseball,” Daniels said. “Obviously, he’s got a pretty good thing going on with the Seahawks, and we’re not going to get in the way of that. Playing quarterback is more intensive than the positions of other guys who have attempted to play both sports.”

Wilson was a two-sport standout at North Carolina State before he transferred to Wisconsin for football. Still, it seems unlikely an NFL quarterback would be capable -- or have his team’s approval -- to play another high-level professional sport.

If Wilson really wanted to tackle a professional baseball career, he almost certainly would have to give up playing in the NFL.