Most of the football viewing public got their first look at the personality of Seattle Seahawk cornerback Richard Sherman, after the Seahawks beat the San Francisco 49ers 23-17 in the National Football Conference (NFC) Championship game last Sunday in Seattle. He had just knocked away an attempted pass from 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick to receiver Michael Crabtree, which ended up in the hands of Sherman’s teammate Malcolm Smith for an interception, to preserve the win. After the play, Sherman taunted Crabtree, and Crabtree pushed him back in his face mask.
The taunt by Sherman consisted of slapping Crabtree on the butt, then offering his hand to shake after the play, then he later put both his hands up to his throat, as if the 49ers choked, I guess. The Seahawks then ran out the clock to preserve the win, and their place in Super Bowl XLVIII, the second trip in their history. After the game ended, Sherman was interviewed by FOX’s Erin Andrews.
Sherman was basically shouting into the microphone about how he is the best cornerback in the game, and Crabtree is a sorry receiver. Apparently these two have a history. Allegedly, at a charity event last summer, Crabtree tried to start a fight with Sherman. My first reaction when i watched the interview, was that Sherman isn’t very happy about his team winning the game. He acted like someone who felt cheated in a loss. No joy, and no mention of his teammates.
I waited a few days to write this, because I wanted to see the fallout from this interview. Many people thought he went overboard, which I agree with. Others immediately brought up that he’s a an intelligent Stanford graduate. What does that have to do with his interview after the game? Sherman even responded to some people who referred to him as a thug. He said he thinks that’s kind of like calling him the N word. What? While I don’t agree with calling him a thug from his comments, I also don’t agree with what Sherman said. He appears to be making this a race issue with those who didn’t like his rant.
Now let’s look at the accuracy of what Sherman said in the interview. He has been in the National Football League (NFL) for 3 seasons, and has made the All-Pro Team the last 2 years. No other cornerback has made the first string All-Pro Team both years, so he should be considered the best cornerback in the NFL. As for Crabtree, he did have a really good 2012 season, with 1,105 yards receiving and 9 touchdowns, but because of injury, he only played in 5 regular season games in 2013, and his production reflected it. He had over 200 yards receiving in each of the past 2 postseasons, in 3 games each year. Crabtree isn’t a sorry receiver.
I also heard people were defending Sherman, saying that he was in the heat of the moment, just coming off the field. I don’t buy this excuse for 2 reasons. First, the post-game interviews always occur right after the game ends, and rants like Sherman’s are very rare. Secondly, it wasn’t like the interception was the last play of the game. The Seattle offense came onto the field, and ran 3 kneel downs to end the game. Obviously this was personal between Sherman and Crabtree.
I also ran across an interview from last March, where Sherman was asked to respond to remarks from ESPN’s Skip Bayless, that he isn’t in the same class as cornerback Darrelle Revis of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He didn’t take it too well. While Bayless was on-camera with him, Sherman called him an “ignorant, pompous, egotistical cretan” among other comments.
At Stanford, Sherman switched from wide receiver on offense to cornerback on defense, because he didn’t like dealing with then head coach Jim Harbaugh, who is now the head coach of those same 49ers that the Seahawks just eliminated from the playoffs. While Sherman can be entertaining, and is a 2-time All-Pro cornerback, he definitely has anger problems, and comes across badly when interviewed, and those issues come out.
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