My apologies to those who don’t follow football…bear with me. I don’t, either.
Anyone watching the Sunday night football game between the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco Forty-niners had to be at least mildly surprised when Seattle’s Richard Sherman launched a rant directed at a player on the other team.
[Sherman:] “Well, I’m the best corner in the game! When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree, that’s the result you gonna get! Don’t you EVER talk about me.”
[Andrews:] Who was talking about you?
[Sherman:]“Crabtree. Don’t you open your mouth about the best. Or I’m gonna shut it for you real quick. L-O-B.”
Touching a nerve
To say Richard Sherman touched a nerve would be putting it mildly. Within minutes of the end of the game, social media was on fire with memes, criticism and support for Sherman. By Monday morning, Sherman was on the cover of major newspapers, which is exactly where the problem starts. Perhaps a great deal of the visceral reaction was connected not to what he said, but when and where he said it. His team had just won their biggest game in their history and he was speaking to football fans everywhere.
We all know a Richard Sherman.
Grandstanding
What Sherman did wasn’t so much about poor sportsmanship, though there was plenty of that. Winning a playoff game and going to the Super Bowl should have been sufficient validation. What Sherman did was to take a great moment for his team and make it all about himself in front of a national audience. While he may have been the key individual as the game ended, he was just one of many players who brought the game to the point where he could make a game-deciding play successfully.
Demoralizing
There’s a Richard Sherman or two in every workplace and they’re not team players. What’s worse, working with grandstanding coworkers is demoralizing to the entire team. We all know deep down inside that anyone that focused on themselves and their standing won’t have the ability to make great decisions. Making decisions is taking risk and possibly being wrong. Nothing is worse for a grandstander’s ego than appearing to be on the wrong side of a poor choice. What’s more, a Richard Sherman is likely to blame others for their own shortcomings. We all know a Richard Sherman and we’re rightfully very wary of him (or her).
People reacted so strongly to Sherman’s rant not because of his color or his background (as has been suggested). It’s the fact that he took everything his team did for an entire season and made it about himself.
Here’s the rant in all of its glory:
All Things D
ARS Technica
Engadget
GigaOM
Mashable
TechCrunch
The Verge
Venture Beat
Wired
Chris Brogan
Brian Solis
Chris Dixon
Clay Shirky Blog
HBR Blog
IT Redux
Jeremiah Owyang
Radar O'Reilly
Seth Godin Blog
SocialMedia Today
Solve for Interesting
The TIBCO Blog
Lifehacker
I think its incredibly naive for you to say that race did not play a role in people’s reaction…
Thanks for the comment. I’m not seeing why race would play a part, could you help me to see why you disagree? I didn’t see anything racial about what he said or did nor in what people said in response (immature, unsportsmanlike, poor winner, self-centered, etc.) I’m suggesting people reacted for the reasons given…that Sherman’s behavior reminded us of people who aren’t team players.
I agree with Come on - author is very naive about the role race played in PEOPLE’S REACTIONS to Sherman’s rant, not his rant itself.
here’s what many people ‘said in response’ - by calling him a “thug,” “monkey” and the n-word repeatedly…
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/sherman-responds-racist-twitter-toughguys-article-1.1585571
Oh, sure - “immature, unsportsmanlike, poor winner, self-centered, etc.” - I’ve worked with many of these people, too. Any suggestions on how they should be dealt with? For me, looking back, I think I should have gone a little more Richard Sherman on them myself. Seemed to have worked for the guy promoted over me!
Thanks for the link. Not having seen all responses to what he said, I go by my own feelings and those of my friends, which didn’t sound racist and seeming to be pushing back on the grandstanding aspects of what he said.
There may have been racial overtones to the response by some people, but that wasn’t what I was writing this about. If and where people made those comments, shame on them. Being a minority myself, I’m sensitive to these issues.