Seahawks CB Richard Sherman "took issue with several NFL policies" during his weekly media availability Tuesday, including the league's sponsorship stance and its "decision last week to fine teammate Marshawn Lynch $100,000" for not talking to the press, according to Bob Condotta of the SEATTLE TIMES. Sherman "took the stage" along with WR Doug Baldwin, who was carrying a lifesize cardboard cutout of himself. During a 2-minute, 25-second skit, Sherman cited the NFL "telling players not to endorse alcohol while having a beer company as its largest sponsor (Anheuser Busch)." He also "wondered why the league touts player safety while asking teams to play two games in the span of five days." Sherman said, "The other day Marshawn Lynch got fined $100,000. Did you know that? $100,000. It’s like, they wouldn’t have even paid him $100,000 if he had talked." He added, “It seems like we’re in a league where they say, ‘Players, please don’t endorse alcohol, no DUIs please.’ But yet a beer sponsor is their biggest sponsor." Asked how he felt about that, Baldwin replied, "It sounds very hypocritical.” Baldwin later asked, “Speaking of health, how do you feel about the NFL making you play two games in five days?” Sherman in "mock horror" replied, “Oh, my gosh. Jeez. I almost didn’t realize that, because they’ve been talking about player safety so much, and two games in five days, it doesn’t seem like you care about players’ safety. It’s a little bit much for me.’’ Condotta notes along the way, each player "managed to drop in nods to their sponsors, Sherman noting that the NFL won’t let him say anything about Beats by Dre headphones, another of his sponsors, because the league has a deal with Bose." Sherman: “Sounds a little bit hypocritical" (
SEATTLE TIMES, 11/26). ESPN.com's Terry Blount noted NFL policy states that players are "not allowed to show or use items with non-NFL sponsor logos 90 minutes before or after games." Sherman and Baldwin "walked off without answering questions" after their skit. Sherman later "apologized to reporters about it, but said they wanted to make their point" (
ESPN.com, 11/25).
MAKING THEIR POINT: In Tacoma, Gregg Bell writes the "beauty of what Sherman and Baldwin did is that they deftly toed a very fine line and gray area of NFL policies." They "didn’t exactly slander the league," and they "didn’t slander a brand of the companies that sponsor the league." What they did was "ridicule what has been a problem dating before this summer’s Ray Rice domestic-violence case: inconsistent and at-times indefensible punishment, fines and suspensions for transgressions ranging in severity from sociopathic to relatively petty" (Tacoma NEWS TRIBUNE, 11/26). YAHOO SPORTS' Jay Hart wrote there is "not much you can really argue with here, even if you're one of those who normally thinks Sherman's mouth needs a muzzle." Hart: "The question now is, just days after fining a player for not talking, will the NFL fine Sherman and Baldwin for talking?" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 11/25). ESPN's Stephen A. Smith said, "I thought it was beautiful. I thought it was brilliant on his part. I think that Richard Sherman has to be careful, however, because he could end up being the NFL's worst nightmare." But ESPN's Skip Bayless said, "He has to appreciate the stage he’s playing on, unless he thinks that the NFL is so hypocritical that you want to break away, you want to secede. ... What he is biting the hand that does feed him pretty well” (“First Take,” ESPN2, 11/26).
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| Sherman spoke as Baldwin crouched behind a cardboard cut-out of himself |
MONEY, THAT'S WHAT I WANT: ESPN’s Ryan Ruocco notes Sherman during the offseason signed a $57M extension with $40M in guaranteed money and said, "Guess where the Seahawks get their money from, Richard? From the NFL sponsorships and because of deals like the one they did with Bose. So you are being paid as a result of that. And by the way, Beats By Dre is going to pay any fine you get anyway” (“Mike & Mike,” ESPN Radio, 11/26). CSN Bay Area's Jim Kozimor said of Sherman, "You know why his salary is so big? Because of those beer sponsors he’s ripping and because of Bose headphones that pay the league. Not his Beats By Dre that he’s talking about.” But the Santa Rosa Press Democrat’s Lowell Cohn noted that Thursday night games in the NFL “takes away from the game and cheapens the sport.” CSNBayArea.com's Ray Ratto called Thursday games “insane” and said NFL players “are treated as commodities, and disposal ones at that.” Ratto: “They make a lot of money, but the fact is they are very much controlled and they are very much led around by a league that has made it clear time and time again that they don't really care about their long-term well-being” ("Yahoo SportsTalk Live,” CSN Bay Area, 11/25).
SPECIAL DELIVERY? Radio host Dan Patrick said, "I would like to have had him to do it in just a grown up, educated way. Just tell me, ‘Hey, here's why I have a problem with this. Here's some of the things where I see as being hypocritical.’ Don't try to be funny with it, just present it" ("The Dan Patrick Show," 11/26).
