Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Over the past few months, Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman has failed to keep himself out of the spotlight, as if that was his goal to begin with. Between belittling ESPN’s Skip Bayless, battling back and forth with Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Darrelle Revis and proclaiming himself the best corner in the NFL, Sherman has put quite a bit of unneeded spotlight on the Seahawks organization. In the process, he has placed an enormous amount of unnecessary pressure on himself without realizing it.
Here’s the problem at hand with all of this: Sherman truly believes he is the best cornerback in the league. His famous line as of late has been “my stats don’t lie” or “Tthe numbers speak for themselves.” Just what numbers is he talking about? If he wants to start a debate about whether or not he is the best cover corner, that’s fine. But when he starts ranting about numbers, that is where we have ourselves an issue.
If we’re looking at strictly numbers, Sherman wasn’t even the best cornerback in the NFC, let alone the NFL. In fact, the two best corners statistically played on the same team. Sherman finished 2012 with three forced fumbles and eight interceptions. While those are pretty solid numbers, the Chicago Bears boast two cornerbacks that outplayed Sherman in both categories. Charles Tillman finished with 10 forced fumbles along with three picks and Tim Jennings finished with nine interceptions to lead the league.
Not to take anything away from Sherman, but he has no place using those types of defense mechanisms when asked about his self proclamation. If he wants to talk numbers, why doesn’t he swing on over to the Windy City and take a little advice from the NFC’s top statistically ranked corners?
It appears the chatter will never end with this guy. The Seahawks are set up to have a monster year in 2013-2014, but Sherman will need to put up or shut up on the field. Enough with the public rants and childish social networking, it’s time to play football and grow up.
Ryan Heckman is a writer for www.RantSports.com covering the NBA and NFL. Follow him on Twitter, “Like” him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google.
