Adam Hill: Timing was right for Raiders to kiss Christian Wilkins goodbye

Adam Hill, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Jul 29, 2025

Published in Football

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LAS VEGAS — Any lingering doubts about whether the Christian Wilkins situation had reached a point where the Raiders had no choice but to release him were erased in a two-minute clip from “The Pat McAfee Show” on Monday when an NFL insider casually dropped a report of an unwanted “playful” kiss in the locker room.

And then things got weird.

Social media was set ablaze with jokes and memes ranging from silly to downright disturbing as sources with a better understanding of the details started to fill in the blanks and a clearer picture emerged of an odd situation that had little to do with football and was more serious than playful.

An aside here: There’s no rule that you have to rush to social media to make jokes whenever stories like this break.

While I’m not a believer in “too soon” and do believe almost every situation, no matter how tragic, is fair game for humor, most people aren’t clever enough to pull it off.

That GIF that you’re posting trying to make fun of the situation? It’s probably been used by hundreds of people if it’s any good or relevant. Nobody’s stopping you from laughing, but not everyone has to participate. I’m especially referring to all those who texted me a certain Snow White meme. Yeah, I got it.

But it’s also indicative of how much this story has already taken off. And it’s only the beginning.

The only real certainty in this sordid affair is that it’s about to get a lot crazier. Mainstream curiosity has been piqued, and even the gossip blogs are now hot on the trail of every salacious detail.

Which is why it’s for the best that Wilkins, the most expensive free-agent signing in franchise history, is a former Raider.

The organization’s decision to move on from the defensive tackle could prove costly in terms of cash and dead cap, but keeping him around would have been an unnecessary deterrent as the team prepares for the season.

This is a team trying to scale Mount Everest in terms of going from a four-win train wreck to not only respectability but also, in the words of new coach Pete Carroll, “Going for it.” Still having Wilkins in the locker room as each new detail emerged would be like an additional daily blizzard falling on the trail.

As it is, the Raiders are going to be daily news. It will be impossible to avoid the attention and ignore the noise. Not to mention the jokes. But it would be far worse if they had to answer questions every day about a player who was still on the roster.

Perhaps the story wouldn’t have leaked at this time if the Raiders hadn’t released Wilkins, but it would have come out eventually. It’s not the kind of thing that stays hidden for long, particularly once human resources is involved. Maybe that was part of the strategy, to push the story out before it got too close to the team taking the field for a regular-season game.

The story is unquestionably still going to linger. But at least the current players have the easy out of saying the accusations involve a former teammate and that they have moved on.

None of this is to say the latest revelations are the reason Wilkins was released. It’s still likely the dispute over treatment of his left foot injury was at the crux of the split.

And probably will be the main focus of the Raiders’ case.

The new details, however, add to a picture of a relationship that was irreconcilable, maybe from the start.

They are also likely to be a part of what is the far more intriguing story here, even if it’s not as tawdry.

This is going to be a fascinating grievance hearing as Wilkins fights the team’s attempt to void the $35.2 million in guaranteed money owed to him. While the proceedings will be private, the league could probably sell pay-per-view rights.

The Raiders probably believe they have a pretty good chance to win the case, and those beliefs might grow stronger as more details are learned.

But even if they don’t, they probably had more at stake by keeping Wilkins and turning every day of training camp into an even bigger circus than it’s already likely to become.

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