Darrelle Revis says Richard Sherman plays scared in 49ers' pass defense

Tom Gatto

•
Darrelle Revis says Richard Sherman plays scared in 49ers' pass defense image

Darrelle Revis and Richard Sherman used to be rivals as elite NFL cornerbacks. Now, Revis is a former player giving Sherman grief on Twitter for not being a shutdown corner for a Super Bowl team.

Revis emerged from his island of exile Sunday to dog Sherman for lacking superior man-to-man skills, after Packers receiver Davante Adams burned Sherman deep in garbage time of the NFC championship game. Revis made the oft-repeated claim that Sherman uses zone coverage as a crutch.

SUPER BOWL ODDS:
Chiefs open as slight favorites over 49ers

Sherman, naturally, had a ready reply on Twitter to Revis' jab.

To decode the "ninth year" part: Revis watched the playoffs from home in his ninth pro year (Sherman is now in his ninth season) after the Jets lost in Week 17 of the 2015 season to the Bills. Revis was a non-factor in that game for Gang Green. Former Jets receiver Brandon Marshall, who was on that '15 New York team, was much harsher in assessing the performance. He said on a New York Post podcast in December that Revis "was stealing from us and didn't show up" that week.

Revis thought he earned his money that season.

Well, Sherman wasn't going to let that reply stand, of course:

(NARRATOR: Revis had three career postseason interceptions, and he owns a Super Bowl victory over Sherman's old team, the Seahawks.)

So, again, Revis' main beef with Sherman is that Sherm can't/doesn't play man all the time (ignoring that, maybe, the Niners don't want him playing man or just really like to play zone).

Sherman had a few things to say about zone vs. man last week after he intercepted a Kirk Cousins pass in the Niners' victory over the Vikings in the NFC divisional round.

"I get tired of hearing, 'Oh, man, he's a zone corner.' I get tired of hearing the excuses for why I'm great," Sherman told reporters postgame. "It was zone coverage. I covered the man (Vikings wideout Adam Thielen) and picked the ball off. In the playoffs, in big games, I show up."

Sherman, who was voted an All-Pro this season, later said: "It's odd. It's like people got frustrated that I was so confident early on in my career, so people wanted me to fail. When I didn't fail, it's like, 'How do we tear him down in other ways?' I'm too consistent on a yearly basis. Since I got in the league, every category that matters to a corner, I'm No. 1."

Sherman's next assignment will be helping to slow down Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill and the Chiefs' high-powered passing game in Super Bowl 54.

Revis' next assignment? Changing the channel, maybe? Regardless, he'll be watching (and perhaps even admiring) 25 from afar.

Something says that Sherman isn't going to quit with an extra week of prep time.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.