Richard Sherman’s postgame rant Sunday night drew nationwide headlines and millions of YouTube clicks.
Response ranged from outrage to shock at the Seahawks cornerback’s WWE-like, 15-second tirade directed at 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree after his game-winning tip led to a Colin Kaepernick interception. Those closest to him were not surprised.
“That’s Richard,” David Shaw, Sherman’s coach at Stanford, told The Mercury News. “It was in the moment.
“Bill Walsh said you want guys with high character who are great players and great people. But every once in a while, you have to line up and defend Jerry Rice. And the guy who does that has to be on the edge. That’s where Richard is.”
That edge helped Sherman go from the streets of gang-infested Compton, Calif., where he was an A student who took AP courses, attended leadership seminars and was second in his class, to Stanford and eventually the NFL. That edge is why he went from being the 24th cornerback drafted in 2011 to one of the most dominant defensive players in the sport. He will be on football’s biggest stage, the Super Bowl, on Feb. 2.
The son of a garbage truck driver and a social worker, he became the first Dominguez High School graduate in the past half-century to receive a football scholarship from Stanford.
The blossoming 25-year-old star is active in community service. He has a charity, Blanket Coverage, that has raised approximately $100,000 for inner-city schools since he launched it in April, his brother Branton Sherman said.
Shaw saw that other side of Sherman when he coached him. He recalled once asking his players to volunteer to attend Football Camp for the Stars, an event for athletes with Down syndrome.
“Richard was the first to raise his hand,” Shaw said. “He was there at the beginning, and he stayed past the end.
“He is the farthest thing from a thug you can imagine. Thugs don’t volunteer to help out at Special Olympics when they’re in high school. But the flip side is a guy who’s ultracompetitive. You put him in that environment, where the game is very personal, and when the gauntlet’s thrown down, he’s ready.”