An Article of Appreciation for Richard Sherman
On January 19th, 2015, the Seattle Seahawks hosted their archrival San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship. Both the Seahawks and 49ers were coming off of great regular seasons that saw them defend their images as two of the best teams in the NFC and the entire NFL. It's scary how similar these two teams were. Both had young athletic quarterbacks that looked to be the future of the NFL in Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick. Two college football legends coached them in Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll. These two coaches emphasized running the ball and playing good defense. They employed identical styles of suffocating defenses that embodied what their coaches believed in. When the game kicked off, Lumenn Field--then called Century Link Field was electric. The atmosphere was electric, thanks to the 12s. The game went as people expected it.
The young quarterbacks were making big plays, the running backs, Marshawn Lynch and Frank Gore, ran rampant the whole night, and the staunch defenses were making plays. When the night was closing, the 49ers had the ball down 17-23, and they were driving the ball. Kaepernick was making passes to Frank Gore, Michael Crabtree, and Anquan Boldin to score a game-winner. With 30 seconds left and on the Seahawks' 18-yard line, Kaepernick heaved a pass up to Michael Crabtree, who was covered by Richard Sherman-- a man who was not known by anyone two years ago, but now, he's the talk of Seattle and widely considered the best cornerback in the NFL. As we all know, Richard Sherman would make one of the most memorable plays in the modern NFL when he turned around and swatted the ball in the air. Linebacker Malcolm Smith came down with the falling ball, and the Seahawks clinched their second birth to the Super Bowl in franchise history. What an incredible moment and play from Richard Sherman, who is an incredible player.
““I’m the best corner in the game. When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree, that is the result you are going to get. Don’t you ever talk about me.”
Richard Sherman is one of those players who comes only once a generation. Few players in NFL history matched his swagger and attitude. He was the man who--as a fifth-round pick-- who wasn't afraid to talk his mind and let people know how he felt about them. How can anyone forget that tweet at Tom Brady when the Seahawks upset the Patriots at home in 2012-- it's iconic. He was a lion. He was never afraid to rise to his competition, and he played like it. Every game day was a championship game to these Seahawks teams. They wouldn't let anything stop them or slow them down. After holding the Denver Broncos' highest-scoring offense in NFL history to only eight points in the Super Bowl, it seemed that Richard Sherman and his Seahawks were destined to become a dynasty-- then Tom Brady got his revenge.
After losing the Super Bowl the following season to the New England Patriots, Richard Sherman and his Seahawks were lost. Reports were coming out that there was a schism between the offense and the defense in the locker room. Richard Sherman was beginning to question coaches' calls to their faces; some of these alterations were heated. An excellent example of this was December 15th, 2016, when Sherman was yelling at Derrel Bevel for calling a pass play on the goal-line; this rightfully made him upset. Since Sherman was blowing up to coaches and causing division in the locker room and the emergence of Russell Wilson as a franchise quarterback, Sherman was losing grasp of his team.
In the 2017 offseason, rumors arose that Richard Sherman would be traded for a king's ransom. This rumor came to be after reports surfaced that Sherman was becoming toxic in the locker room and for childish actions towards Russell Wilson. However, the deal never came to fruition, and Sherman started Week One against the Green Bay Packers in a Seahawks uniform. One faithful Thursday Night game against the Arizona Cardinals later in the season would prove to be the last game he would play in that uniform. He tore his Achilles late in the game, trying to make a tackle on legendary Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, and that was the end to his season and his Seahawks tenure.
Sherman was cut from the Seahawks in the 2018 offseason. Richard Sherman-- the same man who was the face of the franchise for over five years. The same man who gave it his all every Sunday for the Seahawks. The same man who put Seattle on the map as a team to be feared and respected. That same man was tossed to the side of the road like a piece of trash. As the famous saying goes, one man's trash is another man's treasure, and the San Francisco 49ers signed Sherman to a three-year deal in 2018. Now, one of the greatest players to ever wear a Seahawks helmet was wearing the red and gold insignia of the enemy-- how repulsive.
Sherman's career in San Francisco was tumultuous. His first season was poor. He was constantly burned by receivers and struggled to find footing in the defensive scheme-- but hey, he recorded his first career sack, so that's something, right? In 2019, Sherman turned the clock back and began playing like the Richard Sherman we have all grown to love. He was stuffing receivers and shutting them down. He was breaking up passes, making tackles, and generating turnovers. Sherman was named to another pro-bowl and secured a second-team all-pro nod. He was a vital piece to the 49ers' defense that season--which was the best in the NFL. He helped that team go all the way to the Super Bowl, where they faced the Kansas City Chiefs and their messiah, Patrick Mahomes. The 49ers looked like they would win the game after leading 20-10 in the fourth quarter, but Mahomes and the Chiefs blew up the vaunted San Francisco defense and scored 21 unanswered points to win the game. Richard Sherman infamously gave up a perfect passer rating when targeted that game-- not good. On the inside, I was rooting for the 49ers for the first and only time in my life. I wanted to see Sherman win the second ring that he was cheated out of in 2014. This loss hurt me more than it should've.
Sherman would go on to only play a portion of the games in the odd 2020 season. He looked okay in the games he played, but it seemed that his best days were officially behind him. He made it known that he had no intention of resigning with the 49ers and that it was not out of ill feelings toward the organization. The all-generational corner back waited a long time to get signed. Sherman represents himself, which means he doesn't have an agent to deal with his contract negotiations. There were teams interested, one of which being the Seahawks, that he was also interested in joining. Before any team could offer Sherman a new contract, he had to deal with some personal troubles. A video of Sherman--visibly intoxicated-- knocking at the door of his in-laws and requesting for them to come out. There was a tension growing between him and his wife's family. When Sherman arrived, the police were called, and he resisted arrest and was detained. Teams backed off from signing Sherman to a deal out of fear that he wouldn't be able to play for them.
At this moment, a wave of disappointment flooded over me. I watched this man every Sunday as a kid, and I looked up to him, and now he wasn't going to be on an NFL team at the beginning of the season. I saw it happen a year before when legendary Seahawks safety Earl Thomas had a laundry list of off-the-field problems that led to him getting cut from the Baltimore Ravens. He was also coming off of an excellent 2019 season and was at rock bottom because of his life choices. It hurt me to see this happen to my childhood heroes in back-to-back offseasons. However, unlike Earl Thomas, Richard Sherman’s story has a new chapter.
It probably comes as no surprise that I was ecstatic to hear that Richard Sherman is heading down to Tampa Bay to continue his career as a Tampa Bay Buccaneer— how poetic is it that he’s playing with Tom Brady of all people? I would've loved for him to come back to Seattle, and apparently, the Seahawks were close to resigning him, but he was already in Tampa Bay, and it was too late-- the Seahawks had their chance to fix their cornerback situation, and they blew it. But that's okay. Sherman is back in the NFL for at least one more season, and this makes me happy. Sherman helped to redefine the impact of a trash-talking cornerback while also backing it up on the field. He is the heartbeat of any defense he plays on, as well as its most respected player. People never seemed to get Sherman and could never see past his trash-talking and see the man he is. They always wanted to see him fail, and I never understood that.. Richard Sherman is a person I will always look back on with fondness, even he did have his problems with the Seahawks organization. I wish him nothing but the best on his new team-- hopefully, he can finally get that coveted second ring.