Whitlock: Richard Sherman’s criticism of Matt Stafford shows Sherman still plans to be left-wing Charles Barkley
Yesterday, NFL star and Stanford grad Richard Sherman made great use of his black privilege.
Sherman announced his retirement from football and launched his TV broadcasting career by climbing on the back of Super Bowl-winning quarterback Matt Stafford.
Sherman took a massive dump on the idea of the Rams’ Super Bowl victory justifying Stafford’s candidacy for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A handful of broadcasters on ESPN and the NFL Network floated the idea of Stafford wearing a gold jacket. Sherman filed a strong objection over Twitter.
“The HOF bar is incredibly low now,” Sherman tweeted. “Like a participation trophy. No all decade team. No All pro. No MVP. 1 Pro Bowl. Not even MVP of the SB. Never considered the best in any year he played. At least M(att). Ryan has an MVP.”
Sherman went back and forth with people defending Stafford. He added: “All Pro is a measuring stick. All Decade is a measuring stick. Those show you were considered best at your position during the time you played. If you were not in that discussion you def shouldn’t be in HOF consideration.”
In a different tweet, Sherman said: “There’s no measuring stick that makes Stafford a hall of famer other than playing in the most passer happy decade in NFL history. Inflated numbers make ever(y) QB that starts 10+ years a hof.”
Every word of Sherman’s critique is 100 percent accurate. I agree with every single word. The Hall of Fame has lowered the standard for induction. Very good players are being enshrined alongside all-time greats. Stafford, at the moment, is not worthy of Hall of Fame consideration.
Sherman’s commentary is fair. It’s just extremely unusual coming from an active NFL player, especially a player as accomplished as Sherman. Stafford and Sherman are peers. They’re the same age. Their careers overlapped. There’s a fraternity among NFL players. They’re generally highly reluctant to criticize each other in a straightforward manner. Unless they’re in the process of transitioning to a second lucrative career.
Richard Sherman is done as a player. He finished the 2021 season on injured reserve for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs picked him up in October. He played his last game in mid-December. Since then, Sherman has focused on his podcast.
A week before the Super Bowl, on his podcast, Sherman began his attack on Stafford’s legacy. Those comments were mostly ignored. Sherman aired his Stafford critique on Twitter so that the media would notice, particularly media executives.
A few years ago, it was a foregone conclusion that Sherman would easily transition into a TV broadcasting career. That was before cameras caught Sherman terrorizing the home of his wife and in-laws in July 2021. Sherman wrestled with police. He was eventually arrested and charged with driving under the influence, endangering roadway workers, resisting arrest, and domestic-violence-related counts of malicious mischief and criminal trespass.
The incident raised questions about Sherman’s mental stability and undermined his prospects of landing a high-priced, cushy studio job.
Enter Matt Stafford. The Rams’ quarterback offered Sherman an ideal opportunity to remind television executives why they coveted his services before the domestic dispute. Sherman has been on the radar of TV networks since his 2014 NFC Championship postgame interview, when he shocked Fox Sports sideline reporter Erin Andrews with a boisterous attack on 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree.
“Don’t you ever talk about me!”
It’s arguably the most famous postgame interview in the history of sports. It established Sherman as the loudest mouth in football and football’s answer to Charles Barkley.
It was easy to imagine Sherman earning $5 to $10 million a year talking football. That’s quite the football golden parachute. Thanks to the domestic incident, things are much trickier for Sherman.
Enter Matt Stafford. The Rams’ quarterback offered Sherman the perfect opportunity to promote his podcast and tempt TV executives. Criticizing Stafford is low-risk. He’s white. His wife once criticized Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling and complained that Michigan’s mask mandates were authoritarian. Plus, at this moment, Stafford’s resume is unworthy of Hall of Fame consideration.
Richard Sherman can’t lose. Publicly ripping Stafford is a win-win-win situation for Sherman. It’s a good controversy. It overshadows his last controversy – the video of him trying to bulldoze his father-in-law’s front door. The criticism of Stafford demonstrates Sherman’s ability to state opinions that drive conversation on other platforms. Sherman’s handlers will take the stories written about the reaction to his Stafford comments and show them to media executives as proof that the media has moved beyond his domestic incident. It’s all forgotten.
Sherman’s next publicity stunt will be to take a strident political stance or accuse someone white of racism. Maybe he will offer strong words in support of Brian Flores and his discrimination lawsuit against the NFL.
Richard Sherman was supposed to be the left-wing Charles Barkley. He is in the process of rehabilitating his broadcasting career. Stafford is just a pawn in Sherman’s personal chess game.
Who knows? Tom Brady could be Sherman’s next chess move.Whitlock: Richard Sherman case demonstrates how Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg are destroying America
ESPN is so afraid of the Twitter mob that the Worldwide Leader in Sports won't put a byline on its stories covering the arrest of NFL star Richard Sherman.
This is significant. It underscores the power of Twitter to manipulate basic journalism and force a two-tiered, racial standard of journalism equity.
ESPN.com has published four stories related to Sherman's domestic-disturbance, drunk-driving arrest. All of the stories are bylined "ESPN News Services." Here are links, links, links, and links to the stories.
Fear — not a search for truth or desire to inform the public — is driving ESPN's coverage of Richard Sherman. ESPN does not want to subject one of its black or white reporters to the racist bile popular with "Black Twitter." So, the network's stories about Sherman post without a byline and are written in a manner sympathetic to Sherman.
ESPN has yet to report that the uncle of Sherman's wife called 911 and stated that Sherman threatened his wife with violence. Yes, it's just an allegation. However, it's no different from Sherman's wife calling 911 and reporting that Sherman threatened suicide, drank two bottles of whiskey, and told his wife he would fight with police if they tried to arrest him.
Furthermore, since the 1994 OJ Simpson-Nicole Simpson tragedy, we've been educated on identifying the early signs of men who cannot control their violent tempers with spouses. I'm not analogizing Sherman to OJ. I'm saying there's a reason the King County Sheriff's office sought an order in February that barred Sherman from possessing a fireman. Sherman is a threat to himself and others.
ESPN is fearful of painting an accurate picture of Sherman. I'm sure some of its restraint is well-intentioned and based in fairness.
But would fear and fairness drive ESPN's coverage of a white athlete in trouble with law enforcement?
Let's take a look at ESPN's coverage of Chad Wheeler.
Police arrested Wheeler, a former backup offensive lineman for the Seahawks, on Saturday, January 23rd for domestic violence. Wheeler appeared in just five games in 2020. It took the news media several days to take notice of his arrest.
The hometown Seattle Times published a story on Monday, January 25th. Here's a link to that story. Approximately 24 hours later, ESPN weighed in on Wheeler's arrest. Here's a link to ESPN's story.
Notice the byline on the ESPN story, Brady Henderson. He covers the Seahawks for ESPN. Henderson is a fine sports writer. In no way am I attempting to cast Henderson in a negative light. He's a victim of Twitter's negative impact on journalism.
Henderson has tweeted about Sherman's arrest. He's even tweeted a link to the ESPN story about Sherman's court proceedings. Henderson and ESPN justifiably recognize the racially radioactive nature of the Sherman story. ESPN is shielding Henderson from the Twitter storm, and shielding itself by sharing a narrative favorable to Sherman.
There's no risk for a reporter attaching his name to a story examining Wheeler's alleged criminal activity.
Wheeler's criminal case became a bit of a social media cause celebre. Wheeler is white. His alleged victim is black and female. Shortly after his arrest was reported, a Twitter mob formed and began pushing the narrative that ESPN television downplayed and/or ignored the Wheeler case because of white supremacy, white privilege, systemic racism, fear of the Proud Boys, Charlottesville, Trump supporters, and Rachel Nichols' private conversations.
The fact that no one outside of Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll and a handful of Seattle players had ever heard of Chad Wheeler had little impact on ESPN's sparse coverage.
"No, ESPN was racist. The network covered Super Bowl champ, three-time Pro Bowler, two-time all-pro Ray Rice's 2014 domestic violence case because he was black," shouted the angry social media mob.
This column is not intended to take cheap shots at ESPN. Its purpose is to further expose just how corrosive Twitter is to fair, honest journalism. Twitter and Facebook are the primary drivers of two forms of separate-and-unequal corporate journalism — one standard for whites, one standard for blacks.
The social media apps are driving a wedge between black and white Americans. Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg are not journalists. They have installed themselves as the editor-in-chiefs of the news media. They're more toxic and destructive than Roger Ailes, Jeff Zucker, and Phil Griffin.
Politicians love Dorsey and Zuckerberg because of their naïveté, journalistic incompetence, malleability, and willingness to make it financially rain in protection of power.
We're living in the era of mob journalism. Black Twitter's control of the mob won't last forever, or even much longer. Soon, the mob will come for the very people who foolishly delighted in its existence.
Fearless: Don’t blame head trauma for Richard Sherman’s meltdown; blame BLM and years of Marxist programming
NFL star Richard Sherman is a victim. But he's not a victim of what corporate media and social media will argue over the coming days.
Sherman spent most of Wednesday and half of today sobering up and stewing inside a Seattle-area correctional facility. Police arrested the free agent cornerback on suspicion of burglary domestic violence, suspicion of resisting arrest, and malicious mischief.
Police apprehended Sherman outside his in-laws' home. He allegedly tried to break down their front door. Emergency 911 calls from Sherman's wife, Ashley; her uncle; and a construction worker paint a chilling picture of a man out of control.
I suspect over the coming days, we will read and hear speculation that CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy – head trauma) played a role in the 11-year NFL vet's meltdown. Sherman is "one of the good ones, a real credit to his race," according to Joe Biden's America.
Sherman stands for all the right things. He believes that what happened to Rev. George Floyd Luther III on the holy day of May 25, 2020, is an accurate representation of how America treats its black citizens.
On May 31 last year, as Black Lives Matter and Antifa protested the death of St. George Floyd with a nationwide looting, arson, and violence spree, Richard Sherman tossed Molotov cocktails from the comfort of his Twitter feed.
"When will the response be justice? Racism has been around forever and too many excuses have been made for it. If you are sitting by watching it and judging the reaction you are part of the problem with what is going on because you allow yourself to overlook the cause.
"My profession nor my education change the fact that I'm a black man in America and to that end I will continue to fight for equality for the people that are treated unjust in the country. And if that offends you or makes you uncomfortable then maybe we are starting to make progress."
Sherman, a multi-multimillionaire who began his journey poor in South Central Los Angeles, believes systemic racism defines his homeland far more than systemic freedom and opportunity. He is a high-profile ally in the great reset movement to dramatically change the way America and the world operate.
As best they can, corporate media will protect Sherman at all cost. At some point, the race card will likely be played in Sherman's defense.
Twitter's algorithms will promote an illogical what-about-this narrative:
"Why is the media acting like Sherman is Thad Wilson, I mean Chad Wilson, oops, I mean Chad Wheeler, or whatever his name is. You know, the white Seahawks offensive lineman who beat up his black girlfriend. The media ignored that whole thing. I mean, that's racism. Richard Sherman's wife said Richard didn't hurt nobody."
Richard Sherman is one of the most famous NFL players of all time. He's a Hall of Fame-caliber defensive back. He's charismatic and extroverted. His long dreadlocks give him a distinctive look. He's arguably one of the most easily identifiable professional athletes in America.
No one knows or cares about Chad Wheeler.
Sherman, with his play and his mouth, has demanded we take notice of him. In the coming days, it will be argued that all the attention is unfair. Already, ESPN is ignoring the details that damn Sherman.
Here's how the Worldwide Leader in Sports described Sherman's arrest:
A spokesman said "the situation between Sherman and police turned after he was informed they had probable cause to place him under arrest. At that point, he began to walk away and increased his pace, at which time the K-9 unit was deployed to aid in the arrest."
Police allege Sherman fought with them and that's why a dog was used. Anyone who has listened to the 911 calls from Sherman's wife would believe he fought with police. As of this morning, ESPN chose not to quote from Ashley Sherman's frantic 911 call.
ESPN also didn't quote from her uncle's 911 call. He said that Sherman threatened violence against his wife and cut her off in traffic.
I'm painting the picture that I have no sympathy for Sherman. I actually do. I'm not being sarcastic. He is a victim.
It's my opinion that Sherman is melting down from years of leftist programming. He was educated at Stanford University in Northern California. He spent the first seven years of his NFL career in Seattle, the home of Chaz, an Antifa stronghold. The last three years, he played in leftist Mecca San Francisco.
Sherman has been radicalized. He's far out over his intellectual skis.
We think that millionaire athletes and celebrities are living a dream life. They're not, particularly in this day and age when they are required to promote an illogical racial narrative.
Athletes are pulled in a thousand directions. At age 20 and 21, they're tasked with being the primary providers and leaders for their immediate and extended families. They don't know who they can really trust. It's all very stressful.
Sherman has cracked. It's not surprising.
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