Let’s face it, Richard Sherman has been a bit of a bore during Super Bowl week. While we may not have expected the loudmouth that roared during his rant about Michael Crabtree following the NFC Championship game, we didn’t expect Gandhi either.
Clearly, Sherman was on a mission to clean up his image, spending much of the week talking about working with kids, the value of his communications degree and why he’s not a thug.
“I had a game plan of sorts,” the Seahawks cornerback said.
If there’s to be any trash-talk from Sherman, it probably won’t come until Super Bowl XLVIII begins and the competitive instincts kick in. But Michael Irvin, one of the game’s best trash-talkers, doesn’t expect a lot of back-and-forth between Sherman and the Broncos because of their unfamiliarity with each other.
“If I’m playing somebody outside of my division, that’s when I’ll focus on attacking a weakness,” said Irvin, the former Cowboys receiver who built a Hall-of-Fame career jawing with cornerbacks. “If I’m playing somebody within my division, I want to attack your strength because I’m trying to break you because I’ve got to see you more than once a year.”
One of the Super Bowl’s most anticipated matchups will be when Sherman, who led the NFL with 8 interceptions, shadows Broncos receiver Demaryius Thomas, who caught 92 passes for 1,430 yards and 14 touchdowns. Irvin called it the key matchup of the game.
“It’s 88 [Thomas] and Sherm,” Irvin said. “You can’t run away from it. Denver can’t run away from Sherm because you can’t say, ‘We’re going to let you take away our best asset.’ Sherm has to lock on to Demaryius and show, ‘We can handle the best they have.’ ”
Sherman will stay primarily on the left side of the defense when the Seahawks are in zone, but could lock on to Thomas in man-to-man situations. That’s when the psychological gamesmanship could begin. Any jawing, Irvin said, should be calculated to make the opponent become emotional.
“A guy can be more focused on getting back at you than being focused on his assignment,” Irvin said. “Instead of staying in front of me and making sure he gets a re-route, he might be jumping a route trying to make a play because he’s so intense because he’s mad and wants to get back at me. But I’m not going to engage in anything that’s not beneficial. So if I’m continuing to be loquacious on the field and I’m not getting anything reciprocated and it’s not affecting him, then I’m going to put a halt to that because it can be very tiring.”
Listen to Irvin and you understand why Sherman was so heated with Crabtree, a NFC West rival, and has been virtually docile when talking about the Broncos. It isn’t personal, yet. If the competition between Thomas and Sherman remains strictly physical and not necessary verbal, Irvin said, the receiver has the edge.
“When you have a physical receiver and a physical corner, the receiver has a few [advantages] because I know where I’m going and I’m in an active position while he’s in a reactive position,” Irvin said. “When the quarterbacks says ‘hut,’ I know when to go while he’s waiting on my move.”
Sherman has been on his best behavior this week, distancing himself from the self-absorbed loud-mouth he was after the NFC Championship game. But Irvin hopes Sherman doesn’t shy away from being outspoken and controversial. Being the good guy isn’t always best.
“I can be quiet and get cut anyway and bounce around from team to team or I can be who I am and not have people like me while I’m playing,” Irvin said. “All the people that are being talked about, they get jobs after they retire because people want to hear what they have to say.”