By Steve Kallas (posted by Rick Morris)
So Richard Sherman deflects a pass on a fade route (that’s
how Richard Sherman described it) into the end zone against the 49ers and
Michael Crabtree. The tip leads to the
game-clinching interception by linebacker Malcolm Smith. Sherman mouths off to Crabtree and makes the
choke sign, apparently at Colin Kaepernick.
All in the heat of the game, right? Well, bush league as those actions may be,
not exactly. After the game, being
interviewed by Erin Andrews, he mocked Crabtree. Later, in the post-game press conference, he
further mocked Crabtree, a very good NFL receiver. Sherman kept repeating the word “mediocre”
when referring to Crabtree.
So, in that magical and tough trip from Compton to Stanford
to the NFL to the Super Bowl, nobody ever taught Sherman (or he, despite his
intelligence, was unable to learn) one simple thing: how to win with class.
Sherman’s right; it’s totally unfair (and ignorant) to call
him a thug or a criminal. Stanford grad
or not, he doesn’t deserve that. But to
do what he did to fellow competitors competing at the highest level: well
that’s a jerky thing to do.
Despite all of the apologies and backtracking and tweeting,
at the end of the day (and upon reiterating that Crabtree really is a
“mediocre” receiver), Sherman still doesn’t get it.
And as for all the references to Muhammad Ali, understand
this: there was only one Ali, and
Richard Sherman isn’t in his neighborhood, despite being a great corner.
MICHAEL CRABTREE – CLASSY IN DEFEAT
On the other hand, there was Michael Crabtree, maybe two or
three inches (of a higher throw) away from going to the Super Bowl, standing in
front of his locker answering questions after the tough loss. And what did Crabtree say: “He’s [Sherman’s]
a TV guy; I’m not a TV guy. I play
ball.”
Well, Amen to that.
Whatever Sherman really thinks of Crabtree (and he may have been trying
to psyche him out for next season, as these teams play at least twice a year),
he could learn a lot about class from Michael Crabtree.
In addition, Crabtree complemented Sherman not once, but
twice, saying he made a good play.
Michael Crabtree showed a lot of class in defeat, something
Richard Sherman was unable to show in victory.
Unfortunately, millions of kids will see and emulate Sherman before
Crabtree.
And people want to know why kids act the way they do today.
RUSSELL WILSON
On the first Seattle offensive play against the 49ers,
Russell Wilson made a gigantic mistake, which presumably was overlooked because
the Seahawks won the game. You’ve seen
the play plenty of times in the NFL.
Virtually everybody on Seattle moves to the right, but Wilson fakes a
handoff and rolls out left. Coming with
him is tight end Zach Miller.
Only Aldon Smith goes with Miller and you have something
that you see all the time on this play: two offensive players against one
defensive player. Smith is about eight
or nine yards away from Wilson and right near Miller. If Smith stays with the tight end, Wilson
runs. If Smith sprints towards Wilson,
he simply lobs the ball over Smith’s head to Miller.
But, inexplicably, on this play, when Smith runs towards
Wilson, Wilson keeps the ball, and tries to run around Smith, who strips Wilson
of the ball. The 49ers recover on the
Seattle 15 but the 49ers are held to a field goal, a victory for the Seattle
defense.
This was even worse than a rookie mistake by Russell Wilson,
again virtually ignored by the media. If
he makes a terrible play like that against the Broncos, it might very well be
7-0, not 3-0, a play that could change the complexion of the game.
But Russell Wilson is a very bright guy who should learn
from his mistakes.
RICHARD SHERMAN – INTELLIGENT JERK (PART 2)
In addition to the classless behavior Sherman exhibited
towards the 49ers, it was arguably even worse towards his own teammate. After the game, Sherman was talking about
how, if the Seahawks knew the game was going to turn on a fade (that’s
Sherman’s characterization of the route) route thrown his way, they would have
celebrated their victory a lot sooner.
Of course, he totally missed the point of the play. If you watch a lot of NFL games, there are
literally hundreds of fade routes thrown every year in the NFL. Even the average fan knows that most of them
are one on one, receiver on corner, into a corner of the end zone. Depending on the throw, more often than
anything else, the pass is either completed or not.
On the Sherman-Crabtree play, the throw was slightly
underthrown and Sherman was in good
position to deflect (not intercept) the throw.
The FAR BETTER play was by linebacker Malcolm Smith. Think of all the fade routes you see every
year. When, if ever, is there a
linebacker with the speed and the brain to run into the end zone to be around
the play?
It was, of course, the interception by Smith that clinched
the victory. Had he not been there,
after Sherman’s very good play, it
would have been second down. Yet
Sherman, at least right after the game, gave no credit to his teammate. It was as if he thought he had intercepted
the pass.
So, once again, with kids growing up in the look-at-me world
that we live in, how do you expect them to act?
SUPER BOWL PREDICTION: SEATTLE
23, DENVER 19
While I agree that it’s hard to root for Richard Sherman,
the NFC has been stronger than the AFC all
year. Since this writer picked the
Seahawks (over the Patriots, however) to win the Super Bowl before the season,
we’ll stick with Seattle winning
the Super Bowl.
Best defense beats best offense? While that usually happens in history,
recently the NFL has become a video game offensive game. But the Broncos had trouble scoring touchdowns
against the Patriots (and no matter what you think about Manning “carving up”
the Pats defense, it was 3-0 when Aqib Talib was knocked out of the game in the
2nd quarter by a Wes Welker pick) and Tom Brady was unbelievably
inaccurate on some huge plays.
It says here that Russell Wilson will make some big plays
and Percy Harvin will be at least an important decoy and quite possibly,
despite his layoffs and injuries, an actual contributor.
It doesn’t look like the weather will be much of a factor and
people think that will help Denver,
but it says here that the Seahawks get the job done.
We will see soon enough (actually, the game can’t get here
soon enough).
