Sherman on ESPN first take. 12:30

[TJH]

I don't know why people are on here excusing Bayless for throwing darts at Sherman not expecting him to send a few back his way?

Talking about football is one thing, getting personal like that is another.

He got personal first! Did you miss that whole part and jump to a conclusion that Sherm just acted like an ass for no reason?

Talking about him as a player is not getting personal.

 

[theENGLISHseahawk]

Agree with those saying this was difficult to watch.

We all love Sherm... he's had a fantastic two years in the league. Let's hope it continues.

However, it's all getting a bit much. It's gone past the point of raising his profile and the teams. Instead of seeming brash and interesting, people are becoming fed up hearing about him. He's an all-pro corner, Stanford grad etc. Time to let that speak for itself. He doesn't have to go after Skip Bayless. This footage will earn Bayless another zero on his next contract. It's EXACTLY what his producer wants to happen. He wants Bayless to be talked about, which is exactly what happened yesterday.

He's starting to sound more DeAngelo Hall than Deion Sanders. Time for Pete to put an arm around him and have a quiet word IMO. Everyone in the NFL respects Sherman now which is what he wanted. He doesn't want to lose that.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

The beginning and the end of the interview (if you can call it an interview) I'm fine with, but the middle part where Sherm's personally attacking Bayless was bush league at best. Sherm's better than that.

Here's the problem Sherman's creating for himself by going after everyone and anyone that says something bad about him. He's leaving himself no room for error. Sherman's put himself so high up on a pedestal publicly with all this chest thumping that there's nowhere for him to go but down. He's created a persona that everyone other than Hawk fans will be rooting against him.

 

[TheLargentLine]

Emotions were obviously high. Sherman said something personal that maybe he regretted, and maybe he didn't. I for one will not say if it was wrong or if it was not.

Here is what I know: Skip Bayless represents everything that is wrong in sports media. I don't care that he is playing the role. This of course goes beyond Bayless, but he dishes it constatnly and he sure as hell deserves to receive some backlash for it. I am sick and tired of Bayless and most media. I applaud those who stand up against him, whether that be Richard Sherman, Mark Cuban, or anyone else.

Love Sherman or don't. Personally, I love the guy, but I get why he would rub some people the wrong way. Either way, that is your choice, but I don't think anyone should state what Sherman should or should not be doing when the guy is commiting no crime and is out there doing a good service to communities.

 

[-The Glove-]

The beginning and the end of the interview (if you can call it an interview) I'm fine with, but the middle part where Sherm's personally attacking Bayless was bush league at best. Sherm's better than that.

Here's the problem Sherman's creating for himself by going after everyone and anyone that says something bad about him. He's leaving himself no room for error. Sherman's put himself so high up on a pedestal publicly with all this chest thumping that there's nowhere for him to go but down. He's created a persona that everyone other than Hawk fans will be rooting against him.

I think that's the part that drives him. Like another poster said, it forces Sherman to elevate his level of play because he's left himself no room for error. He has to show up or be laughed off the field.

 

[SNDavidson]

Interesting, my post got deleted, must have been considered a personal attack.

 

[Sac]

He's Deion 2.0. A true shutdown corner, only this version actually tackles and hits.

 

[oasis]

Skip was clearly being a dick, but Sherman clearly let Skip get to him. By looking unprofessional, Sherman looked weak. I hope Sherman learns that he looked weak, and therefore gets back to impersonal trash talking. But overall he is an intelligent dude so I'm not really too worried about anything he does -- he know's what he's doing.

 

[HawkAroundTheClock]

I love Sherman and this didn't change that.

As Mark Cuban made very clear, Skip's entire career is based on stating his broad opinions as facts. If you don't think so, refresh your knowledge of the meaning of 'fact' and 'opinion' then listen very closely. He can't answer a simple question like 'what defense were they running?' He spews tired, uneducated clichés like 'they wanted it more' and he represents the inner workings of athletes' brains as if he were their therapist or confidant.

This laziness gets a pass from most because in the long run it's much less important than so many other real-life things. But that's how mediocrity thrives, by not being important enough to get worked up over. There is an art to being just annoying enough to be relevant and there is an art to being just vague enough to not get called out for being wrong. These are not terribly specialized artforms, but Skip has made a career of it. That doesn't mean everyone has to play along. Mark Cuban didn't. And Richard Sherman wouldn't even pretend to do it. Just MHO, but I bet there are loads of professional athletes out there who would love to have done what Sherman did on that show, but don't want to deal with the backlash.

Richard Sherman not only escaped Compton, but has risen to the top of his professional field via Stanford, then the Seahawks. He feels compelled to let people – the people who keep questioning him or flat out trying to put him down – know the facts. Maybe this stems from growing up in a place where a person with dreams gets a lot more grief than support. Maybe Richard Sherman has the perfect balance of self-assuredness, outspokenness, and work ethic to succeed where others from similar backgrounds and circumstances fail.

Maybe he has been doubted and disrespected his whole life, from pee-wee, to high school, to college, where his coach tried to marginalize him, to the national media where an attention-seeking, opinion-as-fact spewing talk show host uses the time leading up to the interview to knowingly rile up the interviewee with put-downs.

For anyone unsure of why Sherman would go on the show, think of it this way. Imagine if a sports columnist started saying things about you in his column like, "You are not a great poster. Your statements and ideas are nowhere near as good as (So-n-so .NET screen name)." If this went on for a few weeks or more, and this columnist was known for badgering other posters, maybe you would feel the need to respond. Maybe not. What if the columnist said the same thing about your professional career? What if you were about to go on a show to discuss your recent charitable events, or to answer the question, "How good do you think you are at your job?" and the interviewer spent the time leading up to the interview saying you are nowhere near as good as another guy in your organization. No numbers, no facts, just "you are not nearly as good." I'm not a trash talker myself, but I'd be a little steamed. Either way, it is at least understandable why Sherman wanted to call out Skip and do it no-holds-barred.

 

[Uncle Si]

No offense hawkaroundtheclock... but Sherman went on the show because he craves attention and conflict. Thats it. How you deal with a guy like Bayless is ignore him, or challenge him with facts. Sherman did neither. He responded emotionally.

I could care less except for when you have chance to take on a douche like Bayless, you have to be prepared. Sherman wasnt, and what that shows me is he was only interested in furthering the attention around him.

whether its a big deal is yet to be seen, but as a fan i'd prefer Sherman step away from the spotlight for a bit

 

[HawkAroundTheClock]

Interesting, my post got deleted, must have been considered a personal attack.

I wish I had screen-capped that. I thought it made the point extremely well.

We let these media blowhards get away with so much crap, like it's sports-talk static or background noise. Your post was very clever in portraying how pointed, uneducated opinions can be presented as factual statements with intent to provoke.

We would all do better to be more diligent in discerning opinion from fact, especially regarding any media.

 

[Sarlacc83]

Really, really difficult to watch. I love Sherman, but this was not his shining moment. When you watch Cuban take down Bayless, you can see Cuban holding all the cards, never getting flustered, and holding Bayless to the same questions and embarrassing him by providing the answers. Sherman never did that. Everyone knows Bayless is a classless douchebag who deserves a few cracks to the jaw. That part's obvious. If Sherman had spent 5 minutes forcing Bayless to hem and haw like the jackass he is, Sherman would have thoroughly won. Instead, he got emotional, too, and when Bayless got that reaction, he pounced because he had the superior hand. Bleh.

 

[AbsolutNET]

Interesting, my post got deleted, must have been considered a personal attack.

I wish I had screen-capped that. I thought it made the point extremely well.

We let these media blowhards get away with so much crap, like it's sports-talk static or background noise. Your post was very clever in portraying how pointed, uneducated opinions can be presented as factual statements with intent to provoke.

We would all do better to be more diligent in discerning opinion from fact, especially regarding any media.

I deleted the exchange before I realized what you were going after.

 

[HawkAroundTheClock]

No offense hawkaroundtheclock... but Sherman went on the show because he craves attention and conflict. Thats it. How you deal with a guy like Bayless is ignore him, or challenge him with facts. Sherman did neither. He responded emotionally.

I could care less except for when you have chance to take on a douche like Bayless, you have to be prepared. Sherman wasnt, and what that shows me is he was only interested in furthering the attention around him.

whether its a big deal is yet to be seen, but as a fan i'd prefer Sherman step away from the spotlight for a bit

No offense taken. We're all just sharing ideas. Speaking of which, how should Sherman have been better prepared? With more facts? He's been doing that constantly ever since Super Bowl week! And Skip still gives him an earful of 'you are not in the same stratosphere as Revis' leading right up to interview time? How many facts can Sherman restate?

Skip's entire career rests on zings and barbs disguised as knowledgeable sports talk. Sherman recognized his game and played it better. It's not a coincidence that this is the first time we've ever seen Sherman get chippy and emotional like that. I argue that he WAS prepared for the show and he was prepared to do what many others have wanted to but wouldn't. He was not caught off guard nor was he shaken. He knew exactly what the show is and what he went there to do. He bullied a bully, plain and simple. Sure that makes for some tense and even uncomfortable TV, but don't pretend that Sherman was duped into a playground exchange he didn't want to be a part of.

Now, ignoring Skip might be how you and I would handle it, but why should we expect any other individual to handle it like we would? Because it's the only right way? Because it gets you more favor with other national media or NFL fans? Those are so unimportant to Richard Sherman. Yes, he wants attention, but he's not going to shake his ass in public unless he knows he can back it up on the field. Put another way, he is not going to 'dial it down' or 'dumb it down' or quiet down just to get approval in the sports columns and message boards.

Aside from winning a Super Bowl, Richard Sherman seems to want two things in his professional life: to be the best corner the game has ever seen, and for people to acknowledge his accomplishments. I don't see anything wrong with that or with how he chooses to go about attaining those goals. When he was selected 1st team All-Pro, that was an achievement toward his second goal. For Skip to come off like Sherman has not attained anything, or is nowhere near the discussion of the best cornerbacks in the NFL is absolutely worthy of an emotional comeback.

I feel ya, though, it's not the way I would handle it. I am flat-out AWFUL at self-promotion. I am like the anti-Sherman in that sense. Doesn't mean it's the only way or even the best way. I'll trust a guy that earned his way out of Compton, into Stanford, and onto a tough roster as a 5th round draft choice. I'll trust a guy who earned his place with those 50 writers as one of the best in the league in his first complete season to know what is best for himself without placing my particular value system on him.

 

[HawkAroundTheClock]

Really, really difficult to watch. I love Sherman, but this was not his shining moment. When you watch Cuban take down Bayless, you can see Cuban holding all the cards, never getting flustered, and holding Bayless to the same questions and embarrassing him by providing the answers. Sherman never did that. Everyone knows Bayless is a classless douchebag who deserves a few cracks to the jaw. That part's obvious. If Sherman had spent 5 minutes forcing Bayless to hem and haw like the jackass he is, Sherman would have thoroughly won. Instead, he got emotional, too, and when Bayless got that reaction, he pounced because he had the superior hand. Bleh.

That's a good point. Now I think I get Uncle Si's point about preparedness a little better. If he had taken a few notes from the Cuban exchange, he still could have made his points, made Skip look like the fool he is, and come out untarnished.

He did point out that Skip does not use facts, just as Cuban did. But Skip wasn't going on and on about how Cuban was not as good as other owners. Their talk was about two other teams, and then about the defensive schemes of Cuban's team vs. LeBron's play the year before.

In this case, if Skip had been talking about the two recent Super Bowl teams and how, say, Megatron, didn't bring his A-game to Seattle earlier this year, maybe the convo would have been different. He set up the interview with provocation. I say Sherman took it and turned his game on him rather than being tricked into getting emotional.

 

[lukerguy]

Really, really difficult to watch. I love Sherman, but this was not his shining moment. When you watch Cuban take down Bayless, you can see Cuban holding all the cards, never getting flustered, and holding Bayless to the same questions and embarrassing him by providing the answers. Sherman never did that. Everyone knows Bayless is a classless douchebag who deserves a few cracks to the jaw. That part's obvious. If Sherman had spent 5 minutes forcing Bayless to hem and haw like the jackass he is, Sherman would have thoroughly won. Instead, he got emotional, too, and when Bayless got that reaction, he pounced because he had the superior hand. Bleh.

Sums it up about right for me too..

Everyone knows Skip is a worthless journalist who makes his money on obscene proof-less opinions. Sherman doesn't represent our organization well the way he came off in my opinion. Athletes are held to a higher standard than reporters. If a reporter sticks a camera in your face while you're on vacation with your family, sure you want to break the camera like Kenny Rogers...but ultimately it just makes you look like a jack@ss.

I don't like Skip, and I don't agree with most of the stuff he says, but Sherman looked like a fool IMO.

 

[ImTheScientist]

The second Sherm stops this type of thing worry..... cause his motivation and hunger is gone.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

The beginning and the end of the interview (if you can call it an interview) I'm fine with, but the middle part where Sherm's personally attacking Bayless was bush league at best. Sherm's better than that.

Here's the problem Sherman's creating for himself by going after everyone and anyone that says something bad about him. He's leaving himself no room for error. Sherman's put himself so high up on a pedestal publicly with all this chest thumping that there's nowhere for him to go but down. He's created a persona that everyone other than Hawk fans will be rooting against him.

I think that's the part that drives him. Like another poster said, it forces Sherman to elevate his level of play because he's left himself no room for error. He has to show up or be laughed off the field.

I guess what I'm trying to say is up until yesterday I was on Sherm's side because he always kept everything light and fun...........but with Bayless it crossed over into mean and ugly territory.

 

[Uncle Si]

No offense hawkaroundtheclock... but Sherman went on the show because he craves attention and conflict. Thats it. How you deal with a guy like Bayless is ignore him, or challenge him with facts. Sherman did neither. He responded emotionally.

I could care less except for when you have chance to take on a douche like Bayless, you have to be prepared. Sherman wasnt, and what that shows me is he was only interested in furthering the attention around him.

whether its a big deal is yet to be seen, but as a fan i'd prefer Sherman step away from the spotlight for a bit

No offense taken. We're all just sharing ideas. Speaking of which, how should Sherman have been better prepared? With more facts? He's been doing that constantly ever since Super Bowl week! And Skip still gives him an earful of 'you are not in the same stratosphere as Revis' leading right up to interview time? How many facts can Sherman restate?

Skip's entire career rests on zings and barbs disguised as knowledgeable sports talk. Sherman recognized his game and played it better. It's not a coincidence that this is the first time we've ever seen Sherman get chippy and emotional like that. I argue that he WAS prepared for the show and he was prepared to do what many others have wanted to but wouldn't. He was not caught off guard nor was he shaken. He knew exactly what the show is and what he went there to do. He bullied a bully, plain and simple. Sure that makes for some tense and even uncomfortable TV, but don't pretend that Sherman was duped into a playground exchange he didn't want to be a part of.

Now, ignoring Skip might be how you and I would handle it, but why should we expect any other individual to handle it like we would? Because it's the only right way? Because it gets you more favor with other national media or NFL fans? Those are so unimportant to Richard Sherman. Yes, he wants attention, but he's not going to shake his ass in public unless he knows he can back it up on the field. Put another way, he is not going to 'dial it down' or 'dumb it down' or quiet down just to get approval in the sports columns and message boards.

Aside from winning a Super Bowl, Richard Sherman seems to want two things in his professional life: to be the best corner the game has ever seen, and for people to acknowledge his accomplishments. I don't see anything wrong with that or with how he chooses to go about attaining those goals. When he was selected 1st team All-Pro, that was an achievement toward his second goal. For Skip to come off like Sherman has not attained anything, or is nowhere near the discussion of the best cornerbacks in the NFL is absolutely worthy of an emotional comeback.

I feel ya, though, it's not the way I would handle it. I am flat-out AWFUL at self-promotion. I am like the anti-Sherman in that sense. Doesn't mean it's the only way or even the best way. I'll trust a guy that earned his way out of Compton, into Stanford, and onto a tough roster as a 5th round draft choice. I'll trust a guy who earned his place with those 50 writers as one of the best in the league in his first complete season to know what is best for himself without placing my particular value system on him.

I love Sherman's story, but I guess thats where I would have wanted him to settle in. If he wants to take on Bayless, im all for it. But why not calmly sit there and reflect on his accomplishments? All we heard was "Im all pro-stanford grad".... not int numbers, passes defended, his background, etc... Or, since he was interested in comparing his successes with Bayless, how many awards has Bayless won, or the shambles of his writing career? It just became a name calling adventure. And that's the thing, Sherman had the ammo.

Im not judging Sherman. Like you said, he's done nothing wrong. As a fan, i just think its getting old. No, he's not going to dial it down. But at what point does this self promotion start to hinder the team? When does he go from Deion to Owens? Thats my only concern.

 

[ImTheScientist]

The beginning and the end of the interview (if you can call it an interview) I'm fine with, but the middle part where Sherm's personally attacking Bayless was bush league at best. Sherm's better than that.

Here's the problem Sherman's creating for himself by going after everyone and anyone that says something bad about him. He's leaving himself no room for error. Sherman's put himself so high up on a pedestal publicly with all this chest thumping that there's nowhere for him to go but down. He's created a persona that everyone other than Hawk fans will be rooting against him.

I think that's the part that drives him. Like another poster said, it forces Sherman to elevate his level of play because he's left himself no room for error. He has to show up or be laughed off the field.

I guess what I'm trying to say is up until yesterday I was on Sherm's side because he always kept everything light and fun...........but with Bayless it crossed over into mean and ugly territory.

Bayless is mean and ugly. He got what he deserved and its nice to see someone stand up to him finally.