Quotables: Richard Sherman says NFL wouldn’t bring down hammer on racist owner
On the heels of landing a new extension in Seattle, the outspoken cornerback said he doesn’t believe the NFL would ban a Donald Sterling-type owner for life. NFLPA president Eric Winston took his own shots at the league, blaming a stalled negotiation on Roger Goodell’s lust for power.
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
- Richard Sherman on if he thinks the NFL would ban a Donald Sterling-type owner for life
In an interview with Sean Gregory of TIME, Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman was asked whether he believed the NFL would have reacted as sternly as the NBA to an owner like Donald Sterling. Sherman was frank in his response, citing the acceptance of the controversial Washington Redskins moniker as evidence of the league's tolerance of racism.
Sherman called the NFL a “bottom line league,” claiming that “if it doesn’t affect their bottom line, they’re not as concerned.”
Sherman was staunch in his criticism of the Redskins controversy, saying he hopes the Sterling incident will help ignite a public reevaluation of the decisive nickname.
“Manziel’s family is not rooting for Houston to be his NFL home, believing that staying in Texas will make his already challenging transition to professional football that much more challenging.”
- Don Banks of SI.com
The growing sentiment around the league is that the Houston Texans will use the No. 1 overall pick on Jadeveon Clowney, and that would reportedly suit the family of Johnny Manziel just fine. Manziel's inner circle supposedly prefers he leave the state where he developed into one of the most polarizing college football players in recent memory.
As far as Manziel's personal preferences, Banks reported that the quarterback "isn't wild" about being drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars due to their location in one of the league's smaller markets. Manziel's agent, Erik Burkhardt, later denied the rumor to Pro Football Talk.
In the end, the teams get to make this decision, not Manziel or his family. But you need only recall the Eli Manning debacle in the 2004 draft to realize that player preference does carry some weight.
“The Houston Texans said, ‘If you want our pick, it’s three number ones and a two.’”
- Jay Glazer of FOX Sports on the price Houston reportedly demanded for the No. 1 pick
When the Redskins traded up for the rights to Robert Griffin III in the 2012 draft, they handed the St. Louis Rams a king's ransom of three first-round picks (one of which is the No. 2 pick in this year's draft) and one second rounder. According to Glazer, that's the same price the Texans asked of an undisclosed team in the top 10 attempting to trade up for the first pick in the 2014 draft.
Not knowing which team made the request means we’re not sure where in the top 10 they were. If they were on the back end, it’s possible the Texans would make lesser demands of a team closer to the top. Otherwise it seems highly unlikely Houston will be parting with the top spot.
“If [Goodell] wanted HGH testing as bad as he wants to retain his power, then we would have had testing last year.”
The NFL and its Players Association continue to haggle over the details of implementing an HGH testing policy, and NFLPA president and former Arizona Cardinals offensive tackle Eric Winston claims the holdup is the result of a stubborn power trip by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Winston and NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith told the press on Wednesday that the only holdup is the league’s refusal to accept neutral arbitration in cases involving players adjudicated criminally or civilly of violations of the drug policy.
“He wants to hold all the cards,” Winston said of Goodell. “He wants to be the judge, jury and executioner. The players aren’t going to go for an un-American system like that and I’m not going to allow them to go for an un-American system like that.”
Goodell recently stated that the union was raising “issues that are completely unrelated” to the testing policy.
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