The reaction to Richard Sherman’s postgame comments is unnecessary. Athletes are going to bring a level of intensity to their game that is unlike any other, and they should not be punished for it.
Jan. 19, the Seattle Seahawks played the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC championship game. There was a lot at stake; one team was going to the Super Bowl and one was not. The focus after the game should have been on the winning team – the Seahawks earned the 23-17 victory – but it was not. It was on some spur-of-the-moment, pure reaction, all-out-intensity quotes made by Seahawks cornerback Sherman.
When Sherman was interviewed by Fox reporter Erin Andrews moments after the game ended, he was fired up. He had just completed a thrilling block of the football in the end zone that caused an interception that gave the Seahawks a win. That play gave them the Super Bowl spot. Immediately after the play, he ran over to 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree, for whom the football had been intended, and tried to congratulate him on the game. Crabtree pushed him in the face and ignored his attempts for a handshake.
This slight prompted his interview. “I’m the best cornerback in the game,” Sherman said, screaming and jumping around. “When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree, that’s the result you are going to get. Don’t you ever talk about me. … Don’t you open your mouth about the best, or I’m going to shut it for you real quick.”
This was obviously not the most well thought-out response. But he later cooled down a bit and reflected on his heated statements.
“If you catch me in the moment on the field when I am still in that zone, when I’m still as competitive as I can be and I’m trying to be in the place where I have to be to do everything I can to be successful … and help my team win, then it’s not going to come out as articulate, as smart, as charismatic – because on the field I’m not all those things,” Sherman told CNN in an interview Jan. 21.
What was most surprising about this incident was the reaction. Thousands took to social media to criticize Sherman for his comments, and many derogatory terms and racial slurs were used.
This is not right. Sure, he probably should have been watching what he was saying, but he was in the moment. What he said didn’t hurt anyone. Crabtree might have felt threatened by his statement, but what came out of Sherman’s mouth was fueled by an intense game and some bad blood between the men. Just because someone has a moment showing some emotion in a public sphere does not mean the person deserves to be attacked for character or race.
Take, for example, Muhammad Ali, a very successful athlete who said many controversial things in his career, in fact, much worse than what Sherman said. When asked about one of his opponents, Ali said, “Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the U.S. Bureau of Wildlife.”
These kinds of childish attacks were prevalent throughout Ali’s career, yet even his bitter rival George Foreman declared that he was “a prophet, a hero, a revolutionary.”
This situation can even be compared with the recent arrest of Justin Bieber. In that situation, a huge public reaction is completely justified. Bieber was breaking the law and creating a situation that could have been dangerous to innocent people. All Sherman did was show some passion after a game.
Some people found his rant to be a distraction from the attention that should have been given to his teammates after their big win. The blame should be deflected to the media as well as those on social media. We are the ones that make things like this go viral, but we also have the power to see it as it really is: a hyper-passionate moment after a big game.