by Deven Nongbri – January 2014
We’re all probably a bit tired about hearing of Richard Sherman and his outburst in the NFC Championship game. His seemingly angry rant rankled a lot of folks and stirred endless debate both online and offline. But let’s look at what he did.
httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=K7n7PiwYKag
Did he curse? No. Was he incoherent? No, not really.
He was cornered for an interview immediately after making a big play and was pretty amped up. And it showed. That’s called passion for what you do for a living and that’s a great quality to have.
As Ben Shpigel (@benshpigel) of the New York Times points out, Sherman’s own family thought this level of celebrity was “‘destined to happen'” as he was a firecracker growing up, with a 4.2 high school GPA, and then graduated from Stanford. He came out of the school with a degree in communications, so he knows his way around a mic. Look at his post game interview (below), bow tie and all. He knew what he was doing.
httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=aXp7wl2beaU
Things aren’t always as they seem. This was not your average player running at the mouth and caught in the act on national TV. The NFL still seemed to think that was the case and handed down a $7,800 fine. But this all may have been a calculated risk as he’s about to ascend the biggest sideline of them all at the Super Bowl this weekend. What brand wouldn’t want to align themselves with passion like that?
Yeah, that Richard Sherman is crazy. Like a fox.
Cover photo courtesy of Aimee.
