So by now anybody who watched the NFC Championship game, or didn’t for that matter, has heard of or seen the post-game interview of Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman by Erin Andrews and has decided that he is now the reason they are rooting for the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl in two weeks.
Here it is:
Now, before you judge, I want you to look at this picture:
Qualifying for Boston by the skin of my teeth…
That’s me, a few years ago, barely qualifying for the Boston Marathon. It came at the end of a long journey, littered with many failed attempts. As fuzzy as the picture is, you can see the emotion on my face, in my body…I’m sure you can almost hear the primal scream I gave as I crossed the finish line. I had just punched my ticket to the big dance, to what is, for many recreational runners like me, the Super Bowl.
My recap of the race, was, if I may say so myself, not so badly written. If you want to relive history, you can find it —>HERE<—. But my skills as a writer are not my point. If someone had put a mic in my face right after crossing the line, I would have been hooting and hollering and would have been as non-“Crash Davis”-like as you can imagine. If, for whatever reason, someone had challenged my ability as a runner before the race, called me out if you will, and then, had the fates been so kind as to let me beat that someone by mere seconds as I crossed the finish to qualify for Boston and they crossed the line just missing their own qualifying time, I might have been moved to say something along the lines of what Richard Sherman said. Emotion is a powerful thing.
I know the analogy stinks. I know it barely works. But Richard Sherman had just finished a game where players throw themselves at each other at incredible velocities over and over and over again. If you watched the first video, then you need to watch this one too – it is all about TEAM.
Click on the image – Hmmm…I wonder why no one is playing this interview over and over again?
How many on-field post-game interviews have you watched? How many do you remember? Take it for what it is – an interview on the field after a bunch of guys just played a game. This is not international politics; it’s not a meeting of the Board of Education; it’s a Post. Game. Interview. And it was entertaining.
If you’re going to root for Denver because you are a Broncos fan? Fine. If you are going to root for Denver because you are an Indy or Peyton fan? Fine. If you are going to root for Denver because, well, you really don’t care and you flipped a coin? Fine. But if you are going to root for Denver because you think this Stanford grad with a degree in Communications is a thug? Hmmm. Maybe walk in his shoes for a couple of days and ask yourself how you might react (especially you dramatic types…you know who you are!). Someone online even suggested, based on the complete lack of profanity on Sherman’s part, that perhaps he was simply playing to the camera a la Professional Wrestling. Who knows?
The bottom line is there are 31 other teams that would love to have Sherman and his Legion of Boom in their defensive backfield, including yours.
GO SEAHAWKS!
***Disclaimer: this is not an unbiased post. As much of a New England Patriots fan as I have been for the last 10 years since moving here, I am, at heart, a Seattle sports fan and have rooted for the Seahawks, Sonics, Mariners and Sounders since 1977.
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