There's More To Richard Sherman Than Being 'The Best Corner In The Game', But You Didn't Want To Know That

It's been a solid ten or eleven days since the Richard Sherman interview with Erin Andrews on FOX went viral on YouTube, Facebook, and any and every news network and social media site in this country.

What struck me was not necessarily the Richard Sherman reaction, but the reaction to Richard Sherman's reaction.

I really thought it showed the true nature of modern people.

I didn't mind what Sherman did. Let's be honest, San Francisco might be the biggest trash talking team, led by one of the biggest trash talkers in the game, Anquan Boldin.

Sherman and Boldin were matched up on more than one occasion and Sherman shut down every receiver he covered that night. But I still bet, after getting shut out by Sherman, Boldin was running his mouth. And Sherman probably wasn't quiet the whole night either.

That said, there's fault on both sides. Not only did Sherman show no class in the interview, but he showed how self-centered he can be.

He gave America a reason to stereotype football players, and frankly, players from the inner-cities of America's largest, and poorest areas. Sherman reinforced the reason people don't like football.

People who have little interest in sports or football at all have a take on what happened. Which irritates me more than almost anything in the world, but I digress.

Kids who have no idea why Sherman reacted the way he did, or who Richard Sherman is are imitating him and Erin Andrews' conversation, which received tens-of-thousands of hits on YouTube.

If you ask me, it's pretty pathetic how everybody reacted, and shows how shallow, short-sited, and rather reactionary people really are.

I would bet, before that interview, even between when the interview took place, and Sherman making the play of his football career, the search engines probably had more hits for Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. But after the interview, Richard Sherman shot up the search results, and likely shot past two of the most polarizing sports figures in the past decade.

I can't argue with people who don't like Sherman because of his antics, not only after the game, but also the way he showed up Michael Crabtree after 'the play' were classless. I've established that, and I will continue to recognize that.

But Sherman himself has said he overreacted. He's himself has said he shouldn't have shown up Michael Crabtree. Sherman has even said he's sorry for the way he displayed poor sportsmanship after that play, and after the game.

Yes, Richard Sherman is a well paid athlete. Sherman isn't a millionaire.... Yet. Not that we shouldn't forgive athletes when they're millionaires, or whether they're on rookie contracts, but if you can't give the guy a pass, that's your problem.

The guy evidently has learned from what he did. He doesn't care what you or I think, but I appreciate him saying he was wrong, and realizes what he did was wrong.

Couple thoughts immediately come to my mind though. Like I said, I did not mind what Sherman did after the game.

What really irritated me, and a lot of these types of things irritate me, was how people who had no idea who Richard Sherman was, immediately jumped to the conclusion he's a bad guy. Or he's just another uneducated helmet head.

Fair enough. But then those same people who probably were ripping into Sherman, never went back and learned more about the guy under the helmet, and under the dreadlocks.

They didn't necessarily have to do it right that moment. They didn't even have to do it the next day. But I would venture a good guess, 60-70% of people, maybe more, never even looked into who Richard Sherman was and what he was all about.

And many probably still don't know.

What would one have found if they did decide to do that?

They would have found Richard Sherman overcame a life in one of the roughest areas of the country, Compton, California. He rose above all the crime, drug problems, and obstacles of being a guy where allegiances are incredibly important, and realized the importance of education, working hard, and found an avenue, yes it was football, where he could make himself better than all that.

Sherman got an athletic scholarship to a university where it is incredibly difficult to get into because of it's academic prestige. Guess what, I know what you're thinking: Sherman only got in because he could play football. Did you also know he was a California State winning track athlete? I bet you didn't.

Richard Sherman in High School

Make no mistake about, Sherman got into Stanford on more than athletic ability, although his athletic ability was incredibly appealing.

Sherman grew up being made fun of because he didn't talk like the other kids in school. He actually used proper grammar and would get on the people who made fun of him because they sounded like the idiots. Imagine that.

Sherman's academics were a big reason why he got into the prestigious Stanford University. Did you know Sherman worked hard to be a straight-A student with a 4.2 GPA? He learned sign language at Stanford and received a master's degree.

The guy everybody deemed a "thug" or an "ignorant n***er", is actually very educated and quite an intelligent person. Do a quick Twitter search for Richard Sherman and you'll come across some pretty derogatory and completely unacceptable, and mindless insults hurled at the young man. You'll find some pretty ignorant, uneducated people making assumptions about someone they don't know, and don't care about getting to know.

Sherman arrived at Stanford as a pretty coveted wide-receiver in California. As a freshman, Sherman led a Pac-12 school in receptions. Sherman came back as a sophomore to lead the team to an upset of a pretty good USC team.

Because of Jim Harbaugh's run-first offense, Sherman switched to corner, and excelled at it. He went to the bottom of the depth chart, and quickly rose to the top, driven by his talk.

Richard Sherman's motor-mouth has been quoted by dozens of friends and teammates as motivating. But I bet no one cared to know that.

This is what kills me about people, from Jose Fernandez to Yasiel Puig

to Richard Sherman, these guys do one thing on a national stage, and all of a sudden everybody knows every thing about this person.

It's like we think these guys live in a vacuum where they don't have circumstances or a childhood or a story of overcoming incredible adversity.

These guys are just names on a depth chart or names on a fantasy football or baseball roster. They're just guys that show up on highlight reels on ESPN, or FOX or for something on CBS or NBC.

Did I know who Richard Sherman was coming out of Stanford? No.

Granted, I love following young players, whether they're college kids or minor leaguers out of different countries. I love watching a guy no one has a clue about, and then not being at all surprised when they take their sports by storm.

Well I missed on Richard Sherman. But I knew who Richard Sherman was long before he shut down Michael Crabtree on national TV, then proceeded to be himself in an interview not five minutes after that play.

Nobody wants these guys to be themselves. They want them to be Peyton Manning, or David Wright. Humble all the time. Never brash or bold. Always giving credit to someone else.

I wrote over the summer about Jose Fernandez, then I wrote in the playoffs about Yasiel Puig, two Cuban-born baseball players who took the league by storm this year. Everybody loved them, but when they did one thing deemed to not be the "American way" or "classy", then everybody lost their minds.

But back to Sherman. Richard Sherman is a talker. He talks trash, and it motivates him. It motivates his teammates. It's always been this way.

It's all coming to light now, but it is the fact. What you saw Sunday, is who Richard Sherman is.

I very much doubt FOX knew that, otherwise I'm sure Erin Andrews finds another interview.

And speaking of that interview. If you don't want that reaction on national TV, then don't put a reporter on the field after these guys have won the biggest games of their lives to that point.

Another example of this was a couple years ago when Kevin Garnett won his first NBA Championship with the Celtics and he's screaming because he was so happy while the reporter was trying to interview him, everybody killed him over that.

I say again, why? Why are we not accepting of who these guys are?

Does it bother me Richard Sherman didn't give credit to his teammates? Yes. Does it bother me Richard Sherman was completely self-centered. Yes.

But I don't care because if that is who Richard Sherman is. Who am I, or who are you, to tell him to be someone else.

Fact of the matter is, Richard Sherman IS the best cornerback in the game. God forbid, an athlete recognize something they worked their tale off to achieve.

We don't kill Apple for saying the iPhone is the best phone on the market. We don't kill Samsung or Droid for saying their phones are the best phones on the market. Why? Because they are. (See what I did there?)

Why can't Richard Sherman advertise himself as the best corner on the market? If you don't like the commercial, turn it off.

He could have said it in a better way, or at a better time. I'm not going to tell you differently. But that's how he did it. That's who Richard Sherman is.

I'm not going to kill Richard Sherman for being himself, and reacting the way he did given the circumstances.

In fact, most of the time when Richard Sherman runs his mouth, it's because he's proven he's better than his competition. (See Tom Brady, Roddy White, 49ers, Packers, etc)

That's the key. Circumstances. People don't think about the circumstances. They just react because they can, and they want to.

I embrace their circumstances. I enjoy reading about athletes like Sherman, or Puig or Fernandez, who overcame incredible adversity as young people and young adults. I use that to understand why they do what they do. Again, like I did with a guy like Puig, or Fernandez.

Maybe if you did too, you'd see these guys as people, and not just some image on your TV set who gives you a reason to eat junk food and drink beer.

They have backgrounds, families, friends, problems, good days and bad days.

They have days they will always remember. They have days they will want to forget, but never will.

Just like you. And just like me.

Richard Sherman has been contributing to the Sports Illustrated column, Monday Morning Quarterback. A football fan of any kind has read this column more than once.

Sherman titled his contribution this week, "10 Things I learned about America after America Learned About Me". I could sit here and recite the whole thing for you, but just read it and tell me your mind isn't changed about Richard Sherman. It's a complete admittance of what he did wrong, and realizing how to handle the situation better.

Bottom line, there's more to Richard Sherman than what you saw in that 45 seconds with Erin Andrews.

But then again, there's more to any athlete than what they display on a TV.