Richard Sherman: Compliancy Defied

(presnapreads.com)

Perhaps you have never heard of Richard Sherman.

Perhaps you have yet to take note of the three time All-Pro, the former defensive player of the year, and the self-professed "best corner in the game."

Perhaps, but I doubt it.

Richard Sherman has become one of the most prominent players in the game today. He is a master of marketing, and once noticed on the field, wasted no time before making himself known off the field as well.

He has won the Super Bowl and the Madden Cover, and now leads a Seattle defense in a quest to become the first repeat champions in over a decade.

Though now instantly recognizable, it was not always so. Many came to know Richard Sherman in 2012, following a game against the very team he will face on Sunday.

In that game, the Patriots* were seeking to add to a 13 point lead in the 4th quarter, and were in the red zone on the verge of doing so. Brady's* pass was intercepted by Earl Thomas in the end zone, and the Seahawks took advantage of the momentum swing to score 14 unanswered points, eventually defeating New England* by one point.

It was a chirpy game that ended in dramatic fashion and became known as the "U Mad Bro?" game due to a picture posted on Twitter by Richard Sherman.

@RSherman25

When asked about that interaction after the game, Sherman had this to say:

"Me and Earl walked up to him and said, 'We're greater than you. We're better than you. You're just a man -- we're a team.' That's the Brady Bunch; this is a defense. We've got 11 players out there to play great ball, and we're never going to let one man beat us." 

Sherman added an interception of his own in that game as well, but felt there were more opportunities to force turnovers that the Seahawks' let slip through their hands. He also expressed frustration that Brady*, like many other quarterbacks, tended to shy away from Sherman's side of the field.

"Every TV timeout, I went up and said it right to [Brady]: 'Please keep trying me. I'm going to take it from you.' That was when they were winning. He just gave me that look and said, 'Oh, I'll see you after game.' Well, I made sure I saw him after the game."

This week, when asked to recount that interaction, Sherman pointed the finger at Brady* and went on to assert that Brady's* "Golden Boy" image was nothing more than pretense. 

"I think people somehow get a skewed view of Tom Brady," Sherman said. "That he's just a clean-cut guy that does everything right and never says a bad word to anyone. We know him to be otherwise."

Sherman has always been one to speak his mind, and perhaps more surprising is the fact that the league has let him do so. He has slandered the Golden Boy*, implied collusion between the NFL commissioner and the Patriots' owner, and even harshly criticized the hypocrisy of the the commissioner's fines, media policies, and player safety initiatives.

And yet the punishments levied on his teammate Marshawn Lynch, repeatedly, for not speaking have been much harsher.

Sherman certainly denies the NFL its preference for comments and post-game interviews. But the league's silence on Sherman's antics implies another league policy toward intelligent and well-spoken players. 

Fear. 

The league is afraid of players like Richard Sherman, who graduated from Stanford and was featured as a keynote speaker at the Adobe Summit conference in the offseason. Players like Sherman are able to see the business side and call the commissioner on his political motives. Punishment would be validation, and the league does not want a martyr on its hands.

(zimbio.com)

So the league targets players like Marshawn Lynch who, despite his dexterity and skill on the field, has a hard time with "the King's English" and is visibly uncomfortable in media appearances. His reaction seems justified in his own mind-- he does not want to be there! But league policy mandates his attendance, and he complies reluctantly.

Neither player exemplifies the ideal podium persona that the league desires. And that is fitting, given the team they both play for. Pete Carroll has turned his merry band of misfits into repeat contenders, and on Sunday they will have their chance to take the Lombardi Trophy home again. 

If that occurs, and the Seahawks are able to defeat the Partiots* despite the league's attempts to suspend Seattle's star players, and his reluctance to punish the Patriots* star quarterback, then perhaps Marshawn Lynch will have something to say at his next press conference-- inspired by his teammate Richard Sherman and directed at the commissioner, Roger Goodell:

"You Mad, Bro?"