Richard Sherman explains his postgame interview
Seattle Seahawks defensive back Richard Sherman wrote about his postgame actions.
Otto Greule Jr
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
It took just over 12 hours for Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman to explain his side of a Sunday night postgame interview that's being bisected, dissected, mulled over and used as social commentary.
Sherman wrote an article for The MMQB in which he recounts a simmering feud boiling over after a series of events in which he felt disrespected.
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There’s a school of thought that Sherman should have shown some ethereal concept known as “class,” a one-word, often misused term that’s supposed to connote an air of being gracious in victory and turning the other cheek. Immediately after the game, Sherman wasn’t capable of containing his emotions and suddenly “passion” became “behaving like a thug.” The All-Pro defensive back isn’t backing down from his statements, despite being criticized for his outburst.
Erin Andrews interviewed me after the game and I yelled what was obvious: If you put a subpar player across from a great one, most of the time you're going to get one result. As far as Crabtree being a top-20 NFL receiver, you'd have a hard time making that argument to me. There are a lot of receivers playing good ball out there, and Josh Gordon needed 14 games to produce almost double what Crabtree can do in a full season. And Gordon had Brandon Weeden, Brian Hoyer and Jason Campbell playing quarterback.
Don't like it? Fine. However, this statement is statistically accurate and echoes the same sentiment about the Browns many have echoed over the last six months -- a team boasting one of the league's best offensive weapons and no way to harness it. Richard Sherman may not ever sit at a long table, post-retirement, and talk about which young players need to show humility, but he has a grasp on the NFL at a macro level.
Sherman also touched on the tip of this seemingly large iceberg, an event that took place in Arizona over the offseason in which he had a run-in with the 49ers wide receiver.
But that’s not why I don’t like the man. 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.
An emotional player after a game felt slighted and yelled about his opponents, flames fanned by a division rivalry and an established feud. It’s tempting to overcomplicate his interview by projecting a need for stoicism, but Sherman isn’t apologizing.
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