Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman’s game-sealing play in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game — and his beef with 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree — was months in the making.
On a Colin Kaepernick pass intended for Crabtree, Sherman leapt up and deflected the ball, which was hauled in by linebacker Malcolm Smith to seal the win and the Seahawks’ first trip to the Super Bowl since the 2005 season.
After the game, while being interviewed by FOX’s Erin Andrews, Sherman launched into a verbal tirade against Crabtree.
“I’m the best corner in the game!” he yelled. “When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree, that’s the result you’re going to get. Don’t you ever talk about me!”
When asked whom he was referring to, Sherman responded, “Crabtree! Don’t you open your mouth about the best, or I’ll shut it for you real quick. LOB [Legion of Boom]!”
The interview went viral, and on Monday morning, Sherman explained his actions in a first-person piece published on Sports Illustrated’s Monday Morning Quarterback website.
“I ran over to Crabtree to shake his hand but he ignored me,” he said. “I patted him, stuck out my hand and said, ‘Good game, good game.’ That’s when he shoved my face, and that’s when I went off.”
In the piece, Sherman made the case Crabtree is overrated — “As far as Crabtree being a top-20 NFL receiver, you’d have a hard time making that argument to me” — then alluded to his contentious history with Crabtree.
“It goes back to something he said to me this offseason in Arizona, but you’d have to ask him about that,” Sherman wrote. “A lot of what I said to Andrews was adrenaline talking, and some of that was Crabtree. I just don’t like him.”
Sherman’s reference to last offseason in Arizona stems from an apparent dispute that took place at a charity event hosted by Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, according to a report in the Seattle Times.
At the event, Sherman tried to shake Crabtree’s hand, and Crabtree responded by trying to start a fight. According to Sherman’s older brother, Branton, Richard Sherman said afterwards, “I’m going to make a play and embarrass him”  — words that would prove to be prophetic.
Twitter blew up in the aftermath of the post-game interview, and Sherman defended himself.
“I don’t want to be a villain, because I’m not a villainous person,” he wrote. “To those who would call me a thug or worse because I show passion on a football field — don’t judge a person’s character by what they do between the lines. Judge a man by what he does off the field, what he does for his community, what he does for his family.
“But people find it easy to take shots on Twitter, and to use racial slurs and bullying language far worse than what you’ll see from me. It’s sad and somewhat unbelievable to me that the world is still this way, but it is. I can handle it.”