Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman may be the best cornerback of his generation, but he isn’t paid to coach. Sherman has been assigned an assortment of roles, but play-calling critic isn’t one of them.
That’s twice now.
That’s two times this season Richard Sherman has erupted on the sideline and doused a coach with lava.
For the second time in two months, the Seahawks cornerback unleashed his rage on a boss while needing several minutes to simmer down.
The first incident involved defensive coordinator Kris Richard after a miscommunication vs. the Falcons in Week 6. Then came Thursday night, when he ripped into Pete Carroll for not vetoing a pass play on first and goal from the 1.
Kris Richard on Richard Sherman outburst: ‘Maybe I need to calm down’
While you can understand the man’s passion, and maybe even appreciate his intent, at some point you have to ask: “Richard, what the hell are you doing?”
Sherman may be the best cornerback of his generation, but he isn’t paid to coach. Sherman has been assigned an assortment of roles but play-calling critic isn’t one of them.
Publicly undermining a superior should be frowned upon in just about any situation, but (literally) for Pete’s sake — this wasn’t even Richard’s side of the ball!
In case you missed it, with the Seahawks leading by seven points in the third quarter, Russell Wilson threw a pass to Jimmy Graham that was nearly picked off before falling incomplete. Sherman, subsequently, went ballistic on the sideline, and he made it very clear why after the game.
He said he was letting Carroll know that “we’re not comfortable with you throwing the ball at the 1.” He then made a blatant reference to the interception at the end of Super Bowl XLIX, saying “we already know how that goes.”
I followed up by asking if it was his place to challenge the play-calling, and Sherman didn’t blink.
“One hundred percent,” he said. “One hundred percent. We go out there, we sacrifice, we battle. We don’t give away our battle. You honor our sacrifice.”
Wow.
In one respect, I can understand why Sherman would have reacted the way he did. In addition to harboring resentment from the Super Bowl loss, he has to be frustrated with his team’s offense lately.
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Before last Sunday’s loss to Green Bay, the Seahawks had just eight wins despite leading the NFL in points allowed. Then came six turnovers vs. the Packers, when it became clear the offense was unraveling.
After that game, Sherman told reporters that Earl Thomas wasn’t missed because he “can’t play both sides of the ball,” which was telling. So when he exploded Thursday night, you get the feeling that he was speaking for just about all of his defensive teammates.
Even so, expressing his displeasure for the whole world to see is more detrimental than it is beneficial. He was, in a sense, implying that he knew the team’s offense better than the coaches in charge of running it.
You think offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell just closed his eyes, randomly pointed to a play, and called it in? No, this is a man who, despite drawing ire from the public sometimes, rose to his position through years and years of honing his craft.
It should probably be noted that, uh, the run play on second down didn’t work. Marcell Reese was stuffed at the 1. The Seahawks scored on a TD pass to Doug Baldwin one play later.
The truth is, the once mighty Seahawks’ running game has dwindled this year. (Thomas Rawls averaged 1.6 yards on 21 carries Thursday.) Teams don’t fear it like they did before, which is why the coaches have veered away from it at times.
But even if Sherman is justified in his complaint (and he might have been given it was first down), it’s a bad look to blast a coach in public. Can you think of what would happen to you if you dressed down your boss in front of the whole office? It probably wouldn’t go well.
After the game, Carroll tried to play it off as though it was just Sherman jawing with Baldwin, but we know that wasn’t the case. And the fact that Carroll attempted to downplay the situation suggests he wasn’t too pleased.
Hard to blame him. Sherman is a joy to watch when he’s between the lines.
But when he crosses the line? It doesn’t look so good.