John Madden is not a fan of the way Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman conducted himself after the NFC Championship Game.
Madden, the Hall of Fame coach who became even more famous as a broadcaster and video game pitchman, said on SiriusXM NFL Radio that he doesn’t like the way Sherman’s post-game rant reflects on the NFL.
“I think it’s too much,” Madden said. “To me, it was kind of embarrassing. . . . Kids are watching this, and kids copy the players. I have grandkids and I know that they do because I see them. If a player is wearing a certain color gloves, they have to have that color gloves. A player two weeks ago wore red shoes, I had a grandson came to the game and he had to wear red shoes. The jerseys -- they wear the jerseys and they copy everything those guys do. And to be a great one, they don’t know which things they should copy, and they think that’s how they have to play. I think if any apologies ought to be made, it ought to be to the kids. That’s not the way we do it. . . . I thought it was embarrassing.”
Madden also said something that Sherman himself has acknowledged: Too much of the attention has gone to Sherman, and not enough to the rest of the Seahawks.
“He took away a lot from the other players on his team. Guys played their butts off, guys coached their butts off, and pass rushed and tackled and special teams, and then it got to be all about one guy. In a team sport, that’s wrong,” Madden said.
Madden had plenty of colorful characters on his Raiders teams, and as a coach he was known for allowing his players to be themselves. But in making it about himself rather than the team, Madden thinks Sherman went too far.