In the aftermath of Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman’s on-field tirade against 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree after the NFC title game, Sherman vowed to stop belittling other players.
Now, Sherman is singing a different tune.
In January, in an item that he wrote for TheMMQB.com, Sherman suggested that he’d be turning a new leaf when it comes to verbally tearing opponents a new orifice.
“No one has ever made himself great by showing how small someone else is,” Sherman wrote at the time. “That’s not mine. It belongs to Irvin Himmel. Somebody tweeted it at me after the NFC Championship Game. If I could pass a lesson on to the kids it would be this: Don’t attack anybody. I shouldn’t have attacked Michael Crabtree the way I did. You don’t have to put anybody else down to make yourself bigger.”
On Wednesday, Sherman expressed no remorse for his verbal assault on Crabtree.
“I don’t regret anything,” Sherman said during a panel discussion at Harvard Business School, via Ben Volin of the Boston Globe. “People said I had no class. What is class in sports? What exactly is it? Do I say great game and go cookie cutter? No. I don’t think he played a great game. . . . If it was Larry [Fitzgerald], and the same situation happened, I wouldn’t have said a thing. Because I respect Larry.”
So which is it, Richard? Have you learned not to put someone else down? Or would you -- and will you -- do it again, to Crabtree and others whom you deem to be unworthy of your respect?
Often inappropriately, Sherman has been called many things in recent months. One thing he can’t currently be called is consistent.