The Vancouver Sun quoted Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman this week as saying that half the NFL takes Adderall. But Sherman says he was misquoted.
Sherman, who successfully appealed a four-game suspension for a positive Adderall test during the regular season, also said on NFL AM on Thursday morning that he has never taken the drug, which is commonly prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
“I didn’t say that,” Sherman said. “It’s just another case of these writers trying to gain a little notoriety in an interview. What I said was, There’s a bunch of guys in the league on prescription for Adderall, so what -- you know, I’ve never seen people get prescribed a performance-enhancing drug, you know what I mean? So I don’t understand, you know, what everybody is so -- you know, they go so crazy about it when some of these guys test positive for it, but a bunch of guys have prescriptions for it, so it’s, like, you know, kind of misleading.”
So where did the “half the league takes it” quote come from? Sherman said he didn’t say that.
“I didn’t say half, I said a bunch of guys, and then he went with whatever he went with, but that’s the way I put it,” Sherman said.
Sherman said he hasn’t used Adderall and isn’t sure why anyone would use it as a performance enhancer.
“I’m not sure. I’ve never taken it,” Sherman said. “So I’m not sure. From what I’ve learned from this whole case and everything, it somehow, like, slows, slows it down, for people that are sped up, like, ADHD, apparently the guys are too sped up, and, you know, there are breaks in their attention, that the Adderall kind of bridges the breaks in their attention and allows them to stay focused on one thing at a time.”
Sherman added that he doesn’t care if his public comments hurt his reputation.
“I really don’t care either way to tell you the truth,” Sherman said. “If it does, so be it, if it doesn’t, so be it.”