Ever since his Superbowl post-game interview, Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman has received a lot of media attention.
The TIME 100 honoree, who just signed a $56 million contract extension, recently sat down to discuss the upcoming NFL Draft, his lessons from his infamous interview, whether college players should be paid, and why the NFL would have reacted differently if it had its own Donald Sterling.
“Because we have an NFL team called the Redskins,” he tells TIME when asked if NFL commissioner Roger Goodell would ban an NFL owner for life. “I don’t think the NFL really is as concerned as they show. The NFL is more of a bottom line league; if it doesn’t affect their bottom line, they’re not as concerned.”
And because of all the racial backlash following the National Football Conference (NFC) championship game, Sherman wasn’t really shocked at Sterling’s remarks.
“It showed me that America still had some progress to make – on equality and understanding that it doesn’t matter what color you are,” he says. “You treat people as people. And whether a good person or a bad person, you don’t judge them off the color of their skin.”
Read his interview transcript here.
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Originally appeared at Clutch Magazine
Lets be honest, sports in general have a lot of “isms”. I grew up going to football games. It’s not exactly the kind of scene where women are treated with respect. At the Meadowslands, there was a gate where men could stand and hurl all kinds of comments at women. It went on for years. Security knew about it and no one did anything about it. Until one day when someone reported on it at which point the stadium finally acted. Lets also not forget the young women in tiny little outfits jumping around on field cheering on the guys.… Read more »
Lets also not forget the young women in tiny little outfits jumping around on field cheering on the guys. Sports are suppose to be something that everyone can enjoy. But largely, it is one giant male heterosexual normative display of testosterone where anyone else are just “visitors” the american footballers are equally in revealing clothing. erin you said a couple of years ago that you are not visually attracted to the bodies of men(except the wingspan of the lats), so thats why you dont notice. however the footballers are wearing skintight clothing on their legs that reveals/’sexs up’ the calfs,… Read more »
Jameseq, I’m honored you’ve semi-remembered something I said years ago. But that’s not a totally accurate protrayl. I certainly can notice that a person is objectively attractive in a way society prescribes. But it takes much more then just a nice physical appearance for me to be actually attracted to that person or feel drawn to them. When I go to football games, I’m interested in the game, as a fan of football. I’m not interested in objectifying the players based on their looks, oggling them, sexually fantasizing about them or making comments about them that make the men in… Read more »
Further, the football players don’t wear skintight clothes to titillate the public alot verbage, to use your response to megalodon. doesnt change the fact that they are wearing equally revealing clothing, which is arousing. you really are not visually aroused, ive seen plenty of women comment on footballers or athletes. and the olympics 2012 women lusting after the supposed semierect rower on the podium in his skintight clothing. you said cheerleaders are jumping around in tiny outfits, so are the men. and that set position with camera on their asses at the start of plays lol you really are not… Read more »
I responded to Megalodon telling him “alot of verbage”? When and where did I do that? Can you qoute it exactly please if you are going to attempt to use it *here* in this discussion when it came from another one. I’m not even sure what my converation with Megalodon has to do with our conversation here. Am I suppose to feel bad that sometimes my responses are long? Does that somehow discredit the merit of them? What does my conversation with megalodon in another post have to do with our conversatoin here? You are making very little sense. And… Read more »
the search cant find the verbiage quote, where was that long discussion between u and megalodon, post the link. and ill find it on that page. Turn your converstaion into the acutal discussion James and leave the personalizations and assumptions about me out of it. You’re point of view will be a lot stronger that way then subjectively attempting to take cheap shots at me when you could simply discuss the issue on the merits of the actual topic well you introduced the cheerleaders into the discussion. why did you, you brought them up. it was an article about racism.… Read more »
James, Did you seriously just ask me to do your dirty work for you? Get real. A) *You* are the one that brought it up. *You* do the work to back up your accusation since you seem so sure that you know what you’re talking about. B) What does being wordy or using a lot of “verbage” have to do with anything to begin with? How in the world does this strengthen your position in any way? If I am remembering things correctly, it was Mega that said something to me about my long posts. I still fail to see… Read more »
and the term Niger comes from the country Niger, but i doubt you’d have much chance getting away with using it. If a term is offending a whole race of people, regardless of it’s origin, it probably shouldnt be uses to name a football team
Richard Sherman may be a great football player, but when it comes to history he knows nothing. The term Redskins comes from a practice the Algonquin Indians and French engaged in during the French and Indian War. The practice was to paint their faces red in preparation for battle to intimidate their opponents. If you look at January 2014 edition of National Geographic you will see that natives in the Amazon continue the practice today. Brazilians call them pele vermelha, which literally means Red Skin. There is nothing racist about Redskins. I can’t help but wonder if no other team… Read more »