The Seattle Seahawks cut ties with Bobby Wagner last week after a decade with the team. On Wednesday, general manager John Schneider and coach Pete Carroll offered regrets over how the departure went down.
Wagner tweeted last Friday of his release: "Crazy part about all this. I played there for 10 years & I didn't even hear it from them that I wasn't coming back."
Schneider and Carroll both attempted to take blame for not communicating with Wagner before news of his release leaked.
"Yeah, that's on me. I own that," Schneider said, via ESPN.
Carroll tried to interrupt, but Schneider insisted upon shouldering the blame.
"No, it really is [on me]," the GM said. "I wish I could have handled things better in that regard from a communication standpoint. I owe it to him. The organization owes it to him."
Added Carroll: "I'm guilty, too, because I didn't want it to happen. I wanted Bobby to stay with us forever, and so I kept encouraging John, 'Let's see what all the options could possibly be so maybe there's a way out that we don't have to do this.' So each day was crucial as we were drawing closer to it. And then really, it seemed like when Russell's news went out, then everything hit the fan kind of thing. We were supposed to meet with Bobby a couple of days after that, and the timing just didn't work out right. I regret that we didn't do a better job timing-wise.
"I don't know how he heard. You all were talking about it left and right, and then your articles were all over the internet and everything about [the possibility of Wagner being released], so the suggestions were out. But ... it's a hard deal. It's really hard."
A six-time All-Pro, eight-time Pro Bowler and Super Bowl champion, Wagner deserved the end of his run in Seattle to be handled with more sincerity.
Schneider laid part of the blame for the miscommunication on Wagner representing himself as a factor in complicating the issue. The GM has dealt with players representing themselves in negotiations in the past, namely Richard Sherman and Russell Okung.
"It's always somewhat awkward when a player represents himself," Schneider said. "We've had some very high-profile individuals represent themselves here, and you never know exactly what's going to happen at the end of the day. So to approach somebody and say, 'There may be a possible trade. Would you consider this?' And then that player comes back to you, that's not a good situation. So from a timing standpoint, I wish I would have handled things differently."