Richard Sherman didn’t talk to reporters after Sunday’s loss in San Diego—though he refutes the notion that he wasn’t available to do so—so Wednesday was his first chance to address the comments made by Chargers receiver Kennan Allen, who said Sherman is “not really a shutdown corner.”
“I thought that was pretty hilarious,” Sherman said. “You know, when a guy wants to get his name in the paper, he has to say something crazy.”
And yes, there is a bit of irony in Sherman is accusing someone else of saying something crazy to get attention. You can make a pretty strong argument that Sherman brings this scrutiny on himself by being one of the league’s more outspoken players, but he still found Allen’s comments particularly amusing.
“It’s humorous, it’s fun to me,” Sherman said. “It’s really funny, especially when you’ve got little guys like the Chargers guys talking about they exposed something, and had 60 and 50 yards. (Antonio) Gates, Hall of Famer, he had a fantastic game, and Philip (Rivers) had a great game, and the rest of the guys were there. But you see stuff like that and it just makes you laugh.”
Sherman was then asked if he got the impression that certain Chargers receivers might have cared more about catching passes on Sherman than winning the game, but the reporter didn’t get the question all the way out before Sherman finished for him: “Than to win the game? Yeah, that’s what it looked like. There’s probably somebody who will tell his kids, ‘You remember that one game? I caught a few passes on Richard Sherman. Didn’t score, but caught a few.’”
Asked to asses his performance in Sunday’s loss, Sherman said, “I felt like I played pretty good. Obviously there were a few plays here and there, but for the most it was a good game.”
As for the notion that he wasn’t available to the media after the game—at least two reporters wrote that he declined interview requests after the game—Sherman said that wasn’t the case.
“I thought that was pretty ridiculous,” Sherman said. “When I got done taking a shower, Earl (Thomas) was being interviewed, I stood there for a while, nobody came to me, and I put my stuff on and walked out, signed a few autographs.”
Sherman said he was only approached by a reporter after he had left the locker room and was signing autographs on his way to the bus.
“I was literally standing in my locker, Earl was being interviewed. When you come off the field after a 120 degree game, and the locker room was about 90, you’re probably not going to stand there for an extra hour to wait for everybody to get done interviews. I’m tired and hot, I’m trying to get cool. I sat there though, I was available… I didn’t sneak off. I was standing there, they just happened to be interviewing other people. Nobody called for me and said, ‘Hey, Sherm.’”
I wasn’t there, so I don’t know what happened for sure, but it is possible both sides are right, to a degree. Quite often after NFL games, the locker room opens while the head coachs are giving their press conference in separate rooms, meaning a lot of the media isn’t in the locker room right away. So it’s entirely possible that Sherman was at his locker for a bit early on, and when no reporters immediately approached him, he called it good, then said no to reporters on his way out of the locker room.
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