The interview that everyone has been talking about. Can someone explain to me why this makes him a bad guy? Sure I could do without him telling me he is the best, but he was fired up. He just made the play of the game and helped his team advance to the Super Bowl. Erin Andrews asked him a question and like what he said or not he gave her an answer. She asked him what he thought about that last play and he gave his emotional opinion on it. It was obvious when it happened that the two have a history, well to everyone but Erin Andrews. I don’t remember anyone calling Steve Smith a thug after him and Aqib Talib went at it in the Pats/Panthers game. I also don’t remember him calling out the Broncos receivers, he thinks Crabtree is mediocre… and he is 100% correct on that.

A lot of the animosity may have started when he went on First Take with an agenda of taking down Skip Bayless and he came across as a dick since Skip didn’t exactly deserve it in that moment, but since when do people stick up for Skip Bayless? Maybe he shouldn’t have gone into that interview with that agenda, but he just said things to him that everyone else was thinking.

Personally I love the trash talking that he does. He comes from Compton, he learned early and often that he had to stick up for himself. He compiled a 4.2gpa in high school and was recruited by Stanford to play wide receiver. As a freshman he led the Cardinal in receiving and was named to as a Freshman All-American. Then before his senior season, due to a team need, he agreed to make the switch to cornerback. After just four football seasons since making the position switch he is arguably the best on the planet.

I hate how people are turning him into a villain. Guys like Terrell Owens earned that by putting himself ahead of his teams and by talking shit off the field. Sherman talks a ton of shit on the field but rarely opens his mouth off the field. He had more interceptions this year than any other cornerback and did it while having the fewest passes thrown his way among full time starters. But instead of being commended, just because he answered Erin Andrews’ question honestly after an emotional event, he has been treated as a pariah. Did you see Andre Iguodala’s tweet? About how he set black people back 300 years? What the hell is going on? Did Tom Brady set white folks back 300 years after any of his temper tantrums on the sideline earlier this season?

There is another level that I’m also okay with as far as the trash talking goes. This guy made about $600K this season, he wants to get paid and that’s a fine way to put yourself in the publics eye. TO and Chad Johnson got a TV show out of doing just that. They spent their money like idiots but in a sport in which one play can end a career I can’t fault anyone for trying to make as much money as they can, while they still can.

Richard Sherman is not a “thug”. How many thugs do you know were able to rise up out of an upbringing in Compton by earning a 4.2gpa, making their way to Stanford as a WR only to agree to switch his position before his senior year because they asked him too? Yes he talks shit, but he backs it up. As Kid Rock once said “They call me cocky, and I say what, it ain’t braggin motherfucker if you back it up”, and back it up he does. Maybe he only plays one side of the field but he is also playing just his fourth college/pro football season at the cornerback position and he is already arguably the best. He doesn’t need to tell me that he’s the best, but I want my defense to have the swagger that he does. I hope he picks Manning off like Tracy Porter did and I hope he goes off again but this time on Andre Iguodala and the rest of the haters.

mlz

Saturday, February 1, 2014