PHOENIX — Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin drew a lot of attention at his first media availability of Super Bowl XLIX, just eight days removed from his viral media-directed locker room rant.
As expected, Baldwin toned everything down, knowing the same media was about to pounce on anything. He did, however, back up the noise his teammate, cornerback Richard Sherman, made on Sunday night.
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Sherman cited the “conflict of interest” of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell being so tight with Patriots owner Robert Kraft as the reason why the Patriots won’t be punished for the ‘Deflate-gate’ wrongdoing.
“Obviously, it has some validity,” Baldwin said. “Richard Sherman is probably one of the most intelligent football players in the league, if not one of the most intelligent people in the world,” he added, proud of his “shoutout” to the cornerback.
Sherman and Baldwin have been outspoken smart people for a while, dating back to their days as teammates at Stanford.
Sherman had the rant heard around the league after the NFC championship last year. It was just Baldwin’s turn this year.
Don’t expect either to rock the boat much more this week. The closer it gets to the Super Bowl, the smarter they both will be about what not to say. It worked pretty well for them last year.
