Michael Kovac/WireImageRussell Wilson has sacked his own marriage.
Relatively fresh from a historic victory in Super Bowl XLVIII, the Seattle Seahawks quarterback has filed for divorce from his wife, Ashton.
They tied the knot in January 2012, several months before Wilson was selected in the third round of the NFL draft by Seattle.
The couple met in high school and were long-distance college sweethearts, with Wilson playing ball at North Carolina State while Ashton attended the University of Georgia. (Historically, the ACC and the SEC are bitter rivals.) They reportedly got engaged in 2010, before Wilson transferred to the University of Wisconsin, where he closed out his NCAA career.
"I have made the difficult decision to file for divorce," Wilson said in a statement released to the media by the team. "Clearly, decisions like these don't come easy. Ashton and I respectfully ask for prayers, understanding and privacy during this difficult time. Moving forward, I will have no further comment on this matter."
They did not have any children together.
And if the news comes as a surprise, that's because the longtime couple seemed to be going strong not that long ago.
"Honestly, we just try to keep our home life as normal as possible," Ashton told Seattle's Tom & Curley Show on KIRO-AM in November. "We just try and keep it real, realize what my husband does is a job, it can change at any minute, and what really matters is we don't change no matter what changes around our environment."
Asked about the couple's plans for life post-football, she said, "I think it's something that we're figuring out now. It really helps to have family and friends around and good mentors and people to talk to, to figure out other interests so that whenever that chapter closes we already know what other chapter we're going to try and start writing together."