Yes, that's right, an NFL cornerback has people in a tizzy, upset about "lack of class."
Deadspin breaks down the atrocious comments people make about Sherman on social media. They're not appropriate to be said in the first place, let alone repeated.
Yet, even those who don't go for the lowest common denominator are missing the point.
Sherman's critics are saying he has no respect or he's a clown for his postgame interview with Erin Andrews, in which he called himself the best and ridiculed Michael Crabtree for thinking anything but that.
Here's where some have lost any semblance of perspective on this situation. Richard Sherman is a football player. He just won probably the biggest game of his life, his team is headed to the Super Bowl and he was incredibly pumped up.
To call him a "bad role model," based on one interview, which lasted less than thirty seconds, is like taking one miniscule bite of a food you had never tried before and calling it disgusting hogwash.
Sherman's story is full of depth. He was the first player from his Compton high school to earn a scholarship to Stanford. He rose out of the depths of a bad neighborhood to a place on the world's biggest stage two weeks from now.
No team wanted Sherman until the Seahawks took a chance on him in the fifth round of the 2011 NFL Draft.
So, the guy has a chip on his shoulder and wants to prove people wrong -- in his case, it's warranted.
We want our athletes to be interesting. We want sports to be fun. This is ultimately entertainment, not a symposium.
So, why flip out when someone makes it compelling to watch?
Sherman didn't drop an F-bomb or call someone a derogatory name, as many ignorant folks across the Internet have now called him.
He showed color and personality. When Crabtree was asked if Sherman was the best cornerback in the NFL leading up to this game, he said, "No, I don't think so."
When it came down to crunch time on the field, Sherman won the battle and called out the guy he beat after the game.
It's football, not foreign policy. It's a game where people spend three hours hitting each other. When rivals don't like each other, there's little love lost. You would be naive to expect anything else.
Too many athletes provide the same boring, canned responses interview after interview.
But then when someone actually exhibits some character, the critics hop on their soapboxes.
They bring up class and respect, as if they are the keepers of the sworn authority on these subjects.
Lighten up, folks. Andrews put it perfectly on Twitter saying, "Richard Sherman gave a candid response seconds after an emotional game."
Sherman spoke with passion.
Those who deride him for it are just speaking with hate.
