Richard Sherman is mistaken, but who cares?
When approached for comment following Sunday’s game, Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman told two U-T reporters he wasn’t talking. This is fact.
Sherman was standing in his dressing stall. His response came to a direct question from my colleague Stefanie Loh. I was next to Loh. We heard him clearly. Sherman was polite about it. We respected his words and moved on.
I Tweeted that Sherman said he wasn’t talking to the media. Naturally, folks ripped him for it.
Sherman responded to that and other fallout Wednesday.
“I was available,” he said, via ESPN. “I didn’t sneak off. No one came up to me [in the locker room]. I took my shower and came back and everyone was talking to Earl [Thomas, who was next to Sherman]. I got dressed and left. I didn’t stick around a long time waiting for everyone.
“We just had played a game where it was over 100 degrees, and it was about 90 in the locker room. I wanted to get out of there and cool off. Someone came up to me in the hallway while I was signing autographs, but that was it.”
Sherman is technically correct that he was available. It is false to say no one came up to him.
Loh and I stood a foot or two outside of Sherman’s stall when she queried him. We had just spoken to Thomas, who was still talking to other reporters.
Bright and football-wise, Sherman may have provided insights into a Chargers offense that held the ball for 42 minutes in San Diego’s 30-21 victory.
Sherman had no experience with us, but several other Seahawks starters who don’t know us answered our questions.
Did reporters who cover the Seahawks interview Sherman after the game? I’ve yet to see any comment from him in their coverage.
According to ESPN, Sherman had plenty to say Wednesday when asked how he thought he played.
“I played pretty well,” he said. “But it’s really funny that two little Chargers say I was exposed. One had 50 yards [Keenan Allen had five receptions for 55 yards], and one had 60 [Eddie Royal had seven receptions for 69 yards]. It makes you laugh.”
Sherman was responding to a U-T tweet, by Michael Gehlken, that some Chargers said he was exposed in Sunday’s game. Gehlken didn’t identify the players.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think Sherman was exposed unless you bought the fiction that he is a pure shutdown corner in the Deion Sanders mold. He is among the NFL’s best pass defenders, but as I wrote the previous week, targeting him judiciously with either Allen or Malcom Floyd, rather than avoiding him like the Packers had, was the right approach.
By my count, Allen made three catches against Sherman. Give Allen the nod in a narrow decision. Credit Sherman for toughness. He played the entire game despite grueling heat and San Diego’s ball-control dominance. Late in the second half (and even parts of the second quarter), he and several teammates looked gassed.
If there was exposure, it came elsewhere in Seattle’s defense courtesy of Antonio Gates, who beat all three starting linebackers and Pro Bowl safety Kam Chancellor. Sherman drew national headlines this week, but it was Gates -- a model of sustained greatness -- who deserved them.
