The Seattle Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl. The NFC champions have proven themselves all season to be one of the best teams in the league, especially in front of their home crowd.
This Super Bowl has the makings to be one of the best. Seattle touts the best defense in the NFL, facing the Peyton Manning-led Denver Broncos, considered the best offense in the NFL. As the two-week hoopla begins, the media is not short of Super Bowl-hype content, especially from Richard Sherman, Seahawks cornerback.
Sherman does not back away from controversy. He has been known to speak his mind, but no other moment of his “mind speaking” received more national attention than during his postgame interview with Fox sideline reporter Erin Andrews after Seattle defeated San Francisco in the NFC Championship Game.
If you haven’t seen the interview, I guarantee you will not have difficulty finding it online. I’m not even going to post the video, because I’m that confident you can find it easily.
You also will easily find people giving their perspective of his brash remarks, calling out 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree specifically, saying he is a “sorry receiver.” Sherman gave a follow-up to his remarks, stating he does not want to be a villain. He wants observers to judge him by what he does off the field.
Sherman is not a “thug.” He is well-educated with a degree in communication from Stanford and is working toward a master’s degree. He also is very involved in community support and is faithful to his family. And, as he directly will tell you, he is an excellent defensive back, leading the NFL with eight interceptions this season.
But Sherman also has a bad reputation of berating individuals. Along with Crabtree, he has had run-ins with a list of NFL players including New England Quarterback Tom Brady. He also went off on ESPN commentator Skip Bayless saying, “I’m intelligent enough and capable enough to understand that you are an ignorant, pompous, egotistical cretin.”
So here is the concern I would like to point out to Mr. Sherman: If your NFL career ended now, you have already produced a long list of amazing accomplishments. I’m sure you are going to have even more success in the days ahead, maybe have a great effect on how the Seahawks perform in the Super Bowl, especially if your team wins. You may go down as one of the best players in NFL history and could be a Hall-of-Famer.
I don’t know what the future holds for you, Mr. Sherman. But if your future is in line with many NFL players, a time will come when you won’t be the best. One day you won’t be as fast and quick as you are now. The more games you play, the more it will wear on your body.
Sure you can back it up now, and you are really good at making yourself known. You are a very sharp guy and can debate better than most. But whether or not you are correct in the banter you express, know that most people will not care as much what you say but more how you say it.
I have previously mentioned a phrase my pastor has shared on more than one occasion, and I think it is applicable now – What I say about you says more about me than it does about you.
When you degrade somebody, whether it is deserving or not, your comment will be a mark on your reputation, not theirs. Sure, people will say awful things about you that may be undeserving and inaccurate, but the best way to prevent that is to not provoke them to draw wrong conclusions.
“The intelligent person restrains his words, and one who keeps a cool head is a man of understanding. Even a fool is considered wise when he keeps silent, discerning when he seals his lips” (Prov. 17:27-28).
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