AND ON A HILL, THERE STANDS SHERMAN, SHERMAN AND HIS MATES: Given that I've long been in favor of taunting in the NFL, you shouldn't be surprised that I'm still Team Richard Sherman after last night, and his column today for MMQB only solidifies it:
It goes back to something he said to me this offseason in Arizona, but you’d have to ask him about that. A lot of what I said to Andrews was adrenaline talking, and some of that was Crabtree. I just don’t like him.
It was loud, it was in the moment, and it was just a small part of the person I am. I don’t want to be a villain, because I’m not a villainous person. When I say I’m the best cornerback in football, it’s with a caveat: There isn’t a great defensive backfield in the NFL that doesn’t have a great front seven. Everything begins with pressure up front, and that’s what we get from our pass rushers every Sunday. To those who would call me a thug or worse because I show passion on a football field—don’t judge a person’s character by what they do between the lines. Judge a man by what he does off the field, what he does for his community, what he does for his family.Will Leitch has more: "Richard Sherman is everything one could want in a professional athlete. He is a walking example of the difference sports can make, of how one man can channel fierce intelligence and an almost frightening competitive fire into something productive and riveting. He is precisely the type of person you should cheer for."
Is ignoring this story going to be an option? He's a great player, he's complex and smart, and he's a boor, but what he does works for him in how he does his job. I'd love him on my team -- I'd take Izel Jenkins at this point -- but as he's on a team to whom I'm indifferent, that. Two weeks of Sherman v. Manning narrative will make me hate the NFL.
ReplyDeleteYou made me look: Toast teaches middle school in Tarboro, NC, where he also coaches the football team.
ReplyDeleteMy discomfort was with the individual denigration of Crabtree and not the emotion of the moment or with Sherman as a player or a man. Yesterday, Sherman apologized for making it personal (and, mensch-like, for overshadowing his team's effort with his comments).
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