In Defense of Richard Sherman

On Sunday night Seattle Seahawks Richard Sherman, who as he tells us is the best cornerback in the NFL, made a game-saving deflection of a pass from San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick to receiver Michael Crabtree, who as Sherman tells us is merely mediocre and Kaepernick should’ve known better than to throw to in the first place. Anyway, Sherman’s huge deflection was intercepted by Seahawks linebacker Malcolm Smith, which sealed the win and a Super Bowl berth for the Seahawks.

Then just seconds after his game-winning play Sherman was asked to do an interview with Fox Sports sideline reporter Erin Andrews. The result was THIS.

Immediately Sherman went from game-saver to the most hated man in the NFL and over 24 hours later people still can’t get enough of bashing Sherman and besmirching his character.

My only question is … Why?

Was what Sherman did appropriate or sportsmanlike?

No. I’m not sure anybody could defend his response as being such. Even he later realized it wasn’t appropriate and has since apologized.

However, was his response worthy of such vitriolic responses from fans calling him a “thug” or a “punk” or even worse?

Absolutely not.

ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowherd hit the nail right on the head when he said about the situation on his daily radio show “You put a mic in his face three seconds later don’t expect composed athlete speak. Richard Sherman made the play of the day in the NFL, he was all jacked up.”

What Sherman did was essentially not a big deal, even if I do admit to it not being ideal for an athlete to do. When it comes right down to it all he really did was trash talk an opponent in a loud manner.

It was made into a big deal by people for a few reasons. 1) it was aggressive 2) he’s a black athlete 3) his interviewer was a female (and not only that but an attractive one that much of America is too in love with).

I know some people are going to roll their eyes at the implication of race being the issue here, but if that had been a white athlete giving the interview you can be assured the response wouldn’t have been as negative, you can be assured nobody is tweeting a white athlete racial slurs and you can be sure that nobody is throwing around the word “thug” today. In fact, have you ever heard a white athlete referred to as a “thug?”

NASCAR drivers Kurt and Kyle Busch are about the most vile things I’ve ever seen in the world of sports and I’ve never heard the word “thug” bandied about when speaking of them.

Richard Sherman gives a passionate, emotional postgame interview and he’s automatically a thug. It doesn’t matter that he was a Salutatorian (ranked second in his entire class) in high school. It doesn’t matter that he’s a Stanford graduate in communications and actually returned to college for his final year of eligibility just so he could begin a Masters degree. It doesn’t matter that judging by his column for Monday Morning Quarterback that he’s an intelligent and well-written writer. It doesn’t matter that he’s involved with multiple charities. All that matters to the ignorant sports fan is that he came off as an angry black man on television and therefore he’s a “thug.” Yet, white athlete Ben Roethlisberger has more than likely sexually assaulted multiple women and he’s not a “thug.”

All Sherman’s interview amounted too was one-upping Crabtree, who he has a longstanding rivalry, if not feud with. The two have gone back and forth many times and Crabtree has reportedly even tried to fight Sherman previously at a charity event hosted by Arizona Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald. Crabtree has taken numerous chances in the media to diss Sherman, as well. Sherman was merely getting the last (and biggest laugh) on Sunday.

Next time you have a problem with what you perceive to be an outburst from a professional athlete try taking into account the emotions that run high during these incredibly high stakes games, take into account the history between athletes and take into account the athlete’s personality and character. Don’t simply write them off as a “thug” because they are black and screaming on television.