Sherman Speaks

(On the perception that the defense this year has regressed from previous seasons)

"It's always the same. It's always the same. We limit people, we don't give up a lot of yards. Whether the outside world realizes it or not is indifferent to us. Obviously, we're always going to be in top two, top three, No. 1 most of the time in yards, scoring. I'm sure we're top three in all of those – passing yards, rushing yards. People just lose (sight of) that sometimes in a season. We just stay the course and continue to do what we've always done."

(On what players think about Marshawn Lynch rehabbing away from the team)

"They're good with it. Whatever works. Different strokes for different folks. We know when that guy comes in the building and he gets on the field, there's nobody like him. There's nobody who's giving more effort, who's going to sacrifice more for their team. There's no question about his loyalty to the team or his work ethic or anything like that. That guy is exactly who we think he is. If he needs to rehab at home, we're all for it. We know he keeps the team first in his heart, so we have no questions about his intentions or anything."

(His assessment of the way he's played this season given how he's moved around more than ever before)

"Yeah, I'm pretty happy with it. I think I played good football. I think I've given up, what, 29 completions on the year. That'd be a great year for anybody but me, but it's an off year for me. It's just one of those things, you try to do your best to do your job. Try to be there when they need you to, be prepared when it comes because some games it doesn't come. Some games you don't have to travel, some games you don't have to move at all. I just try to stay mentally prepared when it does, and I think I've done a good job."

(On whether he's seen the film "Concussion" yet)

"I have not. I see a concussion movie every Sunday. For free. Don't need to go to the theater."

http://mynorthwest.com/292/2882057/Rich ... his-season

I love Richard. Always will. Seems like the defense across the board has lost a bit of that passion that got them to new heights. Sherm has definitely lost a bit of the edge. He always used to have a chip on his shoulder. I'm willing to wager being a father mellowed him out a bit.

Get this defense healthy and we'll make our run.

I agree that he's mellowed a bit. Still a top corner in the league without a doubt but that fire, that chip on his shoulder has been softened with a ring and fatherhood. He still gets fired up for his teammates on the sidelines, cheers them on and is an excellent leader that way but there's little doubt he's not quite the same out there on the field as he used to be.

A lot of that - from my wine goggle perspective admittedly - is likely due to being lulled to sleep at times on the field. It could happen to anyone. I think the plays he's gotten burned on this year the worst were most likely the plays he was lulled to sleep a bit before - "OH S*@&!" then there's a receiver in front of him with the ball sailing over Sherm's head for a TD (see last Sunday's TD as an example).

I fully expect to see the defense we know and love a week from Sunday. Hell, maybe even this Sunday.

His quote about Concussion is so good.

Hasselbeck":1fqahxrm said:

His quote about Concussion is so good.

Click to expand...

It was a pretty clever way to dodge the question. Commenting on that may get a little tricky with the league in general.

Aros":3pyj4l6m said:

I agree that he's mellowed a bit. Still a top corner in the league without a doubt but that fire, that chip on his shoulder has been softened with a ring and fatherhood. He still gets fired up for his teammates on the sidelines, cheers them on and is an excellent leader that way but there's little doubt he's not quite the same out there on the field as he used to be.

A lot of that - from my wine goggle perspective admittedly - is likely due to being lulled to sleep at times on the field. It could happen to anyone. I think the plays he's gotten burned on this year the worst were most likely the plays he was lulled to sleep a bit before - "OH S*@&!" then there's a receiver in front of him with the ball sailing over Sherm's head for a TD (see last Sunday's TD as an example).

I fully expect to see the defense we know and love a week from Sunday. Hell, maybe even this Sunday.

Click to expand...

Health is obviously one of the problems but so is confidence. Thus the balancing act of all the discussion between resting everyone and playing them in the upcoming AZ game.

Another thing is that we're relatively thin at corner. Simon and Smith are out. Simon started, in my opinion, showing some legitimate promise. Yeah, he committed his fair share of penalties but at the least the kid had the fortitude to try and be aggressive on defense. Playing DB in the NFL is incredibly hard and my hats off to the kid for trying his butt off. Sherman had high praise for him as well, which should always be taken with a grain of salt. Get at least him back and it adds another legitimate dimension for this defense were missing badly this year. Cary Williams showed us exactly what the consequences of not taking care of the #2 corner spot.

Nothinbutm":31921924 said:

I love Richard. Always will. Seems like the defense across the board has lost a bit of that passion that got them to new heights. Sherm has definitely lost a bit of the edge. He always used to have a chip on his shoulder. I'm willing to wager being a father mellowed him out a bit.

Get this defense healthy and we'll make our run.

Click to expand...

That, and they used to feed off of Kam, who has mellowed out his own game considerably. He had a long string of tweets a while back about the early retirement of the new (then) Whiners' MLB, and about concussion concerns in general. He may have altered his playing style because of that.....and there is the salary matter he's still pouting about.

Nothing wrong with it but I had to smile, he knows exactly how many balls have been caught against him.
He didn't say but I'd bet $1000 that he knows how many points they totaled as well :{)

Due respect to Sherman but no, it's not "always the same".
In 2013 there wasn't a fan out there scared of any QB. We made HOFers look average and average QBs fill their diapers, especially at home.
I get he doesn't want to admit it but the passing D has regressed and he is either in denial or in spin mode there.
And he misplaced "indifferent" pretty badly as well.
That said, Sherman himself I think is still playing very well, I think it's the rest of the secondary that has fallen off.

hawk45":18zxd5bc said:

Due respect to Sherman but no, it's not "always the same".
In 2013 there wasn't a fan out there scared of any QB. We made HOFers look average and average QBs fill their diapers, especially at home.
I get he doesn't want to admit it but the passing D has regressed and he is either in denial or in spin mode there.
And he misplaced "indifferent" pretty badly as well.
That said, Sherman himself I think is still playing very well, I think it's the rest of the secondary that has fallen off.

Click to expand...

In 2013 there was no emphasis on DB holding and DPI calls. That changed the following year and everyone's pass defense fell off. It has become increasingly clear that the only way to play pass defense is to get to QB's and throw off their timing.
The additional issue has been teams realizing that the best way to beat us is with short-intermediate throws that a) don't allow the pass rush to get there and b)keep the receivers away from the LOB.

Despite the defense "looking" inferior to previous seasons, its held up relative to other teams and remains a top 3 unit. Why? Because every other defense is dealing with the problems of being hamstrung by "safety" rules that are really just "fantasy football augmentation" rules.

Mad Dog":2m85o8yz said:

Because every other defense is dealing with the problems of being hamstrung by "safety" rules that are really just "fantasy football augmentation" rules.

Click to expand...

Very good...that made me laugh, then get pissed off! :lol:

Nothinbutm":29rz0ahb said:

He always used to have a chip on his shoulder. I'm willing to wager being a father mellowed him out a bit.

Click to expand...

Just so there's no confusion, as a preface I just want to say that the following is intended as very high praise for Sherman, and a testament to how smart he is:

I don't think Sherman used to have a chip on his shoulder and no longer has a chip on his shoulder. Instead, I think the rants, the outsized personality and the feuds were him knowingly building his brand identity, just as Deon Sanders did. He turned himself into a media sensation and was handsomely rewarded for it.

I think then with the Crabtree thing in the NFCCG he flew a little bit too close to the sun and was reactive to that. It was the first time that the national media didn't reward him for his schtick, and even criticized him for it a bit.* Being the smart guy that he is, he realized he had made it to the top (network chyrons by that point even had him front-and-center with Lynch and Wilson behind him), and had/could tone it down a bit while still being a good interview and rebranding himself as a "voice" for NFL players and the guy with interesting things to say that he had always been but we just saw less of in the earlier years (that doesn't get you attention like feuds do, but once you have attention it's sustainable).

So, I think Sherman used the craziness to get himself noticed, and doesn't really need that anymore. I think at this point it's even counter-productive to the type of public figure he wants to be.



*On that point, this is conjecture on my part, but something I've always suspected: After the NFCCG on Twitter Sherman was criticized by a ton of other athletes (e.g.: http://goo.gl/TnHQZw ), with some other black public figures (e.g. Damien Wayans and Andre Iguodola) even alluding to him cooning for white people, or at least not representing the black community well given his national profile. Then idiots in the media started referring to him with thinly veiled racist terminology like "thug" and I think this all made him really step back and think a little bit about his role as a public figure. SInce then we know how important Sherman's identity as an African American (and that he came from Compton and went to Stanford) is t to him, and that he has important and evocative thoughts about race and inequality in the U.S. Quite frankly, I think the statements from other African Americans (and that bigoted white sports journalists used the incident as ammo for their bigotry) really made him reconsider the way that he wanted to publicly portray himself now that he was on the national stage. Really since that incident we've seen a ton of the "thoughtful and intellectual" Richard Sherman, and haven't seen much of any of the "ranting and wild-eyed" Sherman that he used to launch himself.


Just to reiterate, this post is intended to be hugely complimentary of Sherman, both for the strategic use of the media to turn himself into a nationally known public figure, and the reactive move to use that national public persona for good rather than just self-promotion once he got it.

Good post, popeye. I made the mistake of thinking that he was a hot-head that couldn't control himself early on and wasn't a fan of some of the comments. Now I think others trying to do what he did (think Doug tried and failed for a short time).

In any case, I agree that he used the media to build the brand and changed it up once he got what he wanted.

^^^ Yeah, I TOTALLY made that mistake too, and agreed about ADB also.

TBH it was really the Crabtree thing that made me realize that rather than being crazy Sherman was crazy like a fox.

TWO INCIDENTS THAT OPENED MY EYES IN RELATION TO THAT:

1) After the Erin Andrews rant he did another on-field interview with someone else (I can't remember who). On that one there was a couple seconds of camera time before the interview started and he was smiling and joking around, and then when the interview started he went back into performance-mode and was suddenly all angry and wild-eyed again. "Oh sh1t," I realized, "this is all WWE schtick, he's just promoting himself!" (It also made the kind of self-knowing smirk during the Andrews interview make a lot more sense also).

2) In the aftermath of that in response to the "thug" debacle I found his responses really intriguing. Sherm grew up in Compton (true), but he grew up solidly middle class with both parents (they both work for the city) and was a straight A student. His house was the biggest house in the neighborhood and the house all the other kids centered around. He almost played this all down a bit while promoting a "rags to riches" story that wasn't entirely accurate, and the media ate it up and ended up defending him even though they were attacking him the week before. He reframed the whole media narrative perfectly. Since then he's been a little bit more open about his background and the advantages afforded to him in relation to some of the other kids in his neighborhood, but again, to me it was really him playing the media like a fiddle.

Just wildly impressive, IMO.

TBF I could be biased though, as I just really like the guy and am probably inclined to give him too much credit rather than too little. As a CB I think he has some interesting limitations (while still being an all around awesome an top tier player), but as a public figure/voice for NFL players he's damn near perfection to me. I'm really hoping that after retirement he takes a bigger role in public issues or gets involved with the NFLPA (I really think he could be his generation's Jim Brown, or bigger).