Richard Sherman enters the week before Super Bowl XLVIII the center of a firestorm. He's out nearly $8,000 for a taunting fine. And his Erin Andrews interview is the stuff of internet legend.
And not because he spoke to Erin Pageviews. He's the most famous Sherman since William Tecumseh.
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What is Sherman? He's the NFL's best cornerback, playing for the Seattle Seahawks, and likely not just of the moment. He is an intelligent individual, a Stanford graduate; he has more in his gray matter than football smarts.
And according to Jason Keidel of Seattle's CBS television affiliate, he is not a thug. He's much more.
"In a real sense," Keidel writes, "Sherman is the emblem of the American Dream."
Really? Yes, and Keidel expounds on a man whose road to the NFL's championship game and its inevitable spotlight began in the slums and veered to one of the world's finest universities.
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Not that Sherman is perfect, a modern paragon in Grecian marble.
"According to his supporters," Keidel writes, "the ones who actually know him, he is the classic NFL paradox – a chirping jerk whose gratuitous self-congratulations seem to please only himself; and off the field a thoughtful, erudite young man whose real life is swathed in charity and respect for his peers."
You'd do well to read Keidel's column before making further judgment on a man you might know only from a post-game outburst on national television to a talking head whose presence guarantees instant visibility.