Boo Richard Sherman in his Seattle return? Seahawks say no way. They will always love him
Hating on Richard Sherman upon his return to Seattle? Thinking the title-winning All-Pro got too big for his team in his final year with the Seahawks?
No way. Not inside the Seahawks’ locker room.
Sherman remains revered in there.
Wednesday, four days before Sherman plays against Seattle for the first time when his San Francisco 49ers come to CenturyLink Field, it was nothing but love. From locker room to meeting room to equipment room, Sherman’s impact on the franchise is on a very personal level with so many in the organization.
Such is the result of Sherman’s seven years, 105 consecutive games and two Super Bowls he played. His era here ended this spring, when the Seahawks waived him injured rather than pay him the $11 million they would have owed him this year.
At one point during many, glowing answers he was giving about Sherman on Wednesday, Seattle coach Pete Carroll grinned and said: “It’s a pretty good love-fest for Sherm.”
It may always be that with the Seahawks.
“I think the world of him,” Carroll said.
Sherman is beloved by their players, coaches, staffers — heck, probably even Turf, the dog that roams their practice field.
A torn Achilles tendon last November led to the team’s decision to essentially fire Sherman, rather than pay him the $11 million this year. That hasn’t changed that love.
Despite what you may do at Sunday’s game.
“He should be received with the loudest cheer you can possibly cheer, and the warmest of welcomes,” middle linebacker Bobby Wagner said.
“It’s not like he said, ‘I hate this team. I want to leave.’ There’s a business side of everything. I would be surprised if they boo. If anyone boos they didn’t like him when he was here. I think he deserves the applause. He was a part of the team that helped bring the city its first football championship. So I wouldn’t expect anything other than respect. ...
“If they do boo him, they weren’t Richard Sherman fans.”
Sherman has yet to record an interception while playing in nine of San Francisco’s 11 games. Last weekend at Tampa Bay, the Buccaneers were one of the few teams to repeatedly challenge Sherman. And they succeeded. Mike Evans caught six of eight passes for 116 yards, with most of that attributed to being against Sherman.
The 49ers, who have been without prized starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo since his injury in week 3, lost 27-9 at Tampa to drop to 2-9.
Sherman made it back from that torn Achilles in time to start the season opener. He collected $2 million for passing a physical examination before the first day of 49ers training camp. He will earn another $125,000 on Sunday just by putting on his white-over-gold uniform. He gets a bonus per game that he is active on game day. That bonus is up to $1,125,000 so far.
The contract’s maximum value can be $39 million over three years, if he makes Pro Bowls and other incentives. But it’s essentially a one-year deal for 2018, with the 49ers have options on 2019 and ‘20.
I asked 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan on Wednesday during a conference call if he envisions Sherman, who turns 31 in March, with San Francisco in 2019 and ’20.
“That’s what we brought him here for,” Shanahan said. “We are going to evaluate the rest of this year, but, yeah, we expect him to be here. He’s been playing well for us, and we’ll see how this finishes out. But that was the reason we brought him.”
Sherman’s former coach is the one who selected him late in the 2011 draft.
“He’s still mad at us for drafting him in the fifth round,” instead of earlier, Carroll said.
Sherman was mad a lot while with the Seahawks. Most noticeable were the times he got into the faces of and screamed at his defensive coordinator Kris Richard during a home loss to Atlanta in 2016, and then at Carroll and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell for play calls near the goal line during a home win over the Rams late that season.
“He’s going to push the limits now, yeah,” Carroll said Wednesday. “He pushes the boundaries because he sees beyond what a lot of people see. He goes beyond what other people might be limited by. I think that’s an extraordinary characteristic of a person.
“That’s part of what it was that I loved about it so much. He made you think and made you work and made you understand and made me come to understand. I didn’t find it as a challenge. I thought it was a blessing that we got to work at stuff like that. That’s what makes coaching special and makes it fun and makes dealing with people fun.”
Sherman said on his way out of Seattle this spring Carroll’s message had, essentially, gotten stale with him and other Seahawks veterans. He also told the online podcast Uninterrupted this spring that Carroll’s Seahawks “lost their way.”
That was after the Seahawks said they wouldn’t pay him his contracted $11 million for 2018. Sherman didn’t have an agent. He represented himself through the Seattle breakout and signing with San Francisco.
“Sherm had to do what he had to do,” Carroll said. “He had to change allegiance and get tuned into his new team.
“Whatever took place was OK. I didn’t care. I know who Sherm is. I know him way differently than you guys probably think I do. I think the world of him. There was times along the time he was here when he said things that I might not have agreed with and had to work through and all that. He’s his own man and he was a stud of a guy when he was here.
“Whatever came out in the transition, I don’t care. I could care less about that.”
What does Wagner expect from Sherman on the field Sunday?
“Probably a lot of trash talk,” Wagner said.
Wagner knows the Seahawks’ locker room is not the same without Sherman in it.
“Obviously, it’s a very opinionated voice in the locker room. He definitely challenged you mentally,” he said. “I know you guys watched him after practice taking a lot of DBs under his wings, and he’s been through a lot, so he had a lot of knowledge to pass down to a lot of the younger guys.
“Most people don’t do that. Most people don’t take the time to pass knowledge that they’ve been able to learn throughout this process, and he was one of those guys that just loved to give knowledge and loved to try to make the people around him better.
“So obviously, when he walks away from the team, you’re definitely going to miss that... It’s all love. You understand that it’s a business. The team is going to make the best decision for themselves, and he’s going to make the best decision for him. And sometimes, you part ways.”
Shaquill Griffin still marvels on what Sherman did for him.
Griffin was a rookie cornerback in June 2017, at an offseason practice weeks after the Seahawks drafted him. At one of the first practices of his NFL career, Griffin saw Seattle’s famous No. 25 — the superstar he grew up idolizing and watching on television play in Super Bowls, saw on a Sports Illustrated cover in 2013 after taunting Tom Brady with “You mad, bro?” following a Seattle win over New England in 2012 — approaching him on the practice field.
Griffin said he was thinking that day: “Oh, crap! Richard Sherman is taking to me!”
“And then: Make sure I listen to every, single thing that he says.
“Then after a while, you get comfortable,” Griffin said. “And you are like, ‘Dang, man! It’s really kind of cool to sit here and then play with a guy like that.’”
Sherman didn’t just give the rookie some pointers that day. He spent the next seven months teaching Griffin every nuance of playing cornerback, of life in the NFL.
A Stanford man, husband and father, a Super Bowl-winning superstar from Compton just south of Los Angeles, and a Central Florida rookie, a bachelor from the Tampa Bay area just out of college, bonded for life.
“Very special. It’s kind of hard to put into words,” Griffin said.
“I’m definitely grateful, for him to do that, because he didn’t have to. It’s not in his job description to have to take a rookie under his wing and help out. And he did it, from the kindness of his heart and being the genuine guy that he is.”
Sherman taught Griffin about Carroll’s step-kick technique unique to Seahawks cornerbacks. About how to read receivers’ eyes and bodies to get a jump on where he and the ball is going.
Most impacting to Griffin, Sherman taught the kid how to be a man in the NFL.
“He taught me how to be a pro,” Griffin said.
“He taught me how to take care of myself, on and off the field. Take care of your body. Rehab. Treatment. Eating well. Watching enough film. Taking a couple hours out of your day, just to watch a little bit more. Knowing how to stay poised in different situations on the field. Different techniques.
“He just taught me how to be a pro, on and off.”
Essentially, though they didn’t know it at the time, Sherman was grooming his replacement in Seattle for 2018. Since week one of this season, Griffin has been in Sherman’s left-cornerback spot.
Griffin has so much reverence for Sherman, he hasn’t considered he is now in Sherman’s Seahawks spot.
“I never really thought about it that way, actually,” Griffin said.
They still talk and text. Sherman has made it clear if his protégé has any questions about anything—defending receivers, knowing quarterbacks, life—Griffin can reach out to him anytime, division rivals be damned.
“Like I said, he’s just a genuine guy. He doesn’t have to do that, either,” Griffin said.
“I actually talked to him (Tuesday). Just checking on him.”
“I told him I need that jersey.”
Win or lose, look for Griffin to meet Sherman in the center of CenturyLink Field immediately following the game to swap game jerseys, a hugely popular habit between players on opposing teams in the NFL.
Sherman’s No. 25 will instantly become the prized possession in Griffin’s collection.
Even with it on a 49ers jersey.
“It’s always all love man,” Griffin said.
This story was originally published November 28, 2018 at 6:09 PM.
