It has been almost a week since Sherman gave his adrenaline
laced pro-wrestlingesque interview to Erin Andrews and I thought by now the
indignation and analysis would have died down. I guessed wrong. I opened up my
espn.com app to see these words "Goodell not a
fan of Sherman's comments"
Really? Now the commissioner has to weigh in on a post-game interview that
included zero curse words, zero references to gender, orientation, age,
lifestyle etc. etc. None of the usual trigger words that one would think would
require a pronouncement from on high. In fact it was not even a white CB vs a
Black WR or vice versa (okay, okay you do not need to point out that there is
no way it could have been a White Corner Back…that is a different discussion) I
am just saying there were no racial implications in Sherman's insult of
Crabtree except one – 'The Angry black man'.
Let's make it clear, I do not think Sherman is an angry
black man, I am saying that I have seen him labelled as such in many venues,
for giving a hyped up post-game interview or RANT as it is so unnecessarily
being called. I have never seen a proclamation from Goodell on any PhillipRivers post game or (as is often) in game trash talking. I never saw Goodell
discuss the instance of Phillip running down the sidelines yelling at the opposing
team's bench in a 'menacing' manner. You could also say the stakes were never
as big as the Super Bowl (but that would be me just taking shots at my Charger
Friends…hey guys – Still no Super bowl???? Ouch).
This is not an anti-commish post, in fact he should not have
been asked the question, but once asked did he have to resort to such coded language
(even if he did not realize it or mean to) as "He is extremely well-spoken"?
Why am I never told how "well-spoken" the white trash talker is? Why
am I never reminded of the great college the white player went to? Should it
not be impressive that Tom Brady went to Michigan a difficult college to get
into (or reminded of his child out of wed-lock)? Should I not be impressed by
how "well-spoken" he is right after he and his coach pointed out that
they targeted a defensive player because they knew he was easy to beat?
Sherman has been called a thug in so many places that
Deadspin.com even took note of the number of occurrences "The day after the Seahawks' win, the word "thug" was uttered 625
times on American television, or more than on any single day in at least three
years."
Hmm why on earth would it need to be said that
many times about a guy who had just made the play that saved his team's season
and voiced a NON-VIOLENT opinion about his competitor? I know it was certainly
not used because he was wrong – Crabtree is not a mediocre receiver, but what
if he was mediocre? Would we then have seen all this uproar?
As Sherman himself has stated, the use of thug has just become the new way of saying the N-word to
him. Now not everyone saying he is a thug means to call him a n-word, but a lot
of people are certainly towing the line.
I am now going to
comment on the fact that he went to Stanford. THANK GOD he went to Stanford, or
any smart school, because hopefully (and it certainly seems so) he will have
that strong educational background to rise above the backlash and to see it for
what it is, small minded people taking shots at someone because he happens to
look different from them. I hope that Stanford background contributed to his strength
of character and intelligence to let him know, to avoid the easy bait that the
race instigators want him to take.
Finally, I could not
believe that some persons were claiming that he scared Erin Andrews in that
interview? Wha-wha-WHAT? This is a woman who has worked for years in the
sporting arena (and in video that was cut is seen hugging Sherman) she was
certainly not afraid of the athlete yelling into the camera NOT at her. Nor was
she afraid of the athlete who was amped up after his game and clearly acting
wildly because of the game, not because of her. To suggest she was afraid again
plays on the 'angry black man' stereotype or on the 'jungle savage' hysteria
that is so often played on when a heavily muscled man with dreads happens to
show up on a TV screen. J.J. Watts routinely does interviews with bloodstreaming down his face and a manic look but I never hear anyone claim his
interviewers are scared. But if you doubt me, ask Erin Andrews she made it
clear she was not scared.
Please can we stop
immediately dissecting every black man's actions as a means of finding out how
close he is to being a 'n-word' and just stop associating all black actions to
that word. I would also just love if we would stop using that word entirely…but
one cause at a time.
