The sports world and football fans were still buzzing Monday (January 20th) about Richard Sherman's post-game rant Sunday night slamming the San Francisco 49ers' Michael Crabtree after his play on Crabtree guaranteed a Super Bowl ticket for his Seattle Seahawks.
Sherman wrote in his regular Sports Illustrated blog yesterday: "To those who would call me a thug or worse because I show passion on a football field -- don’t judge a person’s character by what they do between the lines. Judge a man by what he does off the field, what he does for his community, what he does for his family."
He also addressed the disturbing racial character of some of the criticism, writing, "People find it easy to take shots on Twitter, and to use racial slurs and bullying language far worse than what you’ll see from me. It’s sad and somewhat unbelievable to me that the world is still this way, but it is. I can handle it."
Last night shows that racism is still alive and well... And that's so sad.... At Least some people respect MLKs dream
— Richard Sherman (@RSherman_25) January 20, 2014
However, in a text message to ESPN's Ed Werder, Sherman was regretful, saying, "I apologize for attacking an individual and taking the attention away from the fantastic game by my teammates . . . That was not my intent."Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said on Seattle's ESPN affiliate that he spoke to Sherman about the comments, saying, "We aren't perfect and we all make mistakes. Things don't always come out exactly as we planned."
As for Fox Sports' Erin Andrews, who did that post-game interview with Sherman, she doesn't seem to think he has anything to apologize for. She told USA Today, "You expect these guys to play like maniacs and animals for 60 minutes, and then 90 seconds after he makes a career-defining, game-changing play, I’m gonna be mad because he’s not giving me a cliche answer -- 'That’s what Seahawks football is all about and that’s what we came to do and we practice for those situations' -- No you don’t. That was awesome. That was so awesome. And I loved it."
Richard Sherman gave a candid response seconds after an emotional game..looking forward to a great Super Bowl matchup
— Erin Andrews (@ErinAndrews) January 20, 2014
Andrews also wanted to make clear that she hadn't felt frightened or threatened, saying the producers cut off the interview because they were afraid some four-letter words might start coming out.
No comments:
Post a Comment