Broncos legend took an unnecessary shot at Russell Wilson

Former Denver Broncos legend and Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe was always going to be a great fit for sports media thanks to his incredible personality and willingness to plant a flag in the ground on certain topics. His post-playing career has been incredible in terms of his growth in the sports talk realm, but he may have taken a comment about former Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson across the line.

Sharpe, speaking to former NFL wide receiver Chad Johnson, reacted to something Wilson had said in an Essence magazine article about "paving the way" for Black quarterbacks. Here's Sharpe's full reaction:

Sharpe's argument is that there were others long before Wilson who paved the way for Black quarterbacks in the NFL, and he's certainly right about that. Where Sharpe is wrong and even over the line in his criticism of Russell Wilson is in the fact that he's missing a lot of context for what Wilson said.

As a matter of fact, Wilson even responded to Sharpe's comments which highlighted exactly what he said without eliminating some of the surrounding context of the article, which does give credit to those who came before him:

As always, Wilson is all class. And he was right about what he said in the article. Wilson has been a trailblazer in a variety of ways, not only for Black quarterbacks in today's NFL, but for quarterbacks of all shapes and sizes.

Before Russell Wilson, a guy like Kyler Murray would have almost never been considered an NFL-caliber quarterback. He probably would have had to go pro in baseball. But because of how well Russell Wilson played with the Seattle Seahawks, NFL teams' views on Kyler Murray certainly changed. It may not have been directly a "well, if Russell Wilson can do it..." kind of thing, but there's no doubt that a player like Murray was helped by Russ.

As a matter of fact, NFL.com's Lance Zierlein compared Murray to Wilson coming out.

How about even the year before Murray with Baker Mayfield?

The way Russell Wilson played in Seattle was a huge factor in the talking points surrounding Baker Mayfield's NFL projection. Mayfield, who is probably at least 6-foot-1 in cleats, was considered too small coming out of Oklahoma as well.

As opposed to these guys being mid-round picks destined to eventually be backups because of a stigma around the league, they were #1 overall picks. I am 100 percent convinced that Wilson's play in the NFL played a huge role in that. The way Wilson played at Wisconsin made him worthy of a pick higher than the third round. But because he was 5-foot-11, he lasted to the third.

And the way that he was able to overcome a variety of obstacles certainly paved the way for other quarterbacks.

Although things didn't work out with Wilson in Denver, he definitely deserves his due credit as being one of the best quarterbacks to come into the league over the last 20 years. He was sensational in Seattle, and he did pave the way for other players at his position -- in more ways than one.