Richard Sherman and the Seattle Seahawks are heading to the Super Bowl, but the cornerback can't stop talking about the NFC Championship and his postgame rant on San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree following the Seahawks' 23-17 victory on Sunday which in hindsight he deemed as "misdirected and immature," but Sherman doesn't feel as though he is a thug as some have perceived him.
Sherman told ESPN that he isn't a villain despite his misguided rant following the game which resembled more of a wrestling promo than a postgame interview of a football player.
"We're talking about football here, and a lot of people took it further than football," Sherman said via ESPN. "I was on a football field showing passion. Maybe it was misdirected and immature, but this is a football field. I wasn't committing any crimes and doing anything illegal. I was showing passion after a football game."
He added: "It is what it is. Things like that happen and you deal with the adversity. I come from a place where it's all adversity, so what's a little more or people telling you what you can't do. I really was surprised. If I had known it was going to blow up like that I would have approached it differently."
Sherman tipped a Colin Kaepernick pass intended for Crabtree in the end zone with 22 seconds left and it ended up in the hands of Malcolm Smith in what became a game-winning interception that sealed the Seahawks first trip to the Super Bowl since 2005.
Following the win, rather than sharing the joy of going to the Super Bowl, Sherman began to scream during an interview with Fox Sports.
"I'm the best corner in the game,'' Sherman yelled to Fox Sports. "When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree, that's the result you're gonna get. Don't you ever talk about me."
When asked who was talking about him Sherman called out Crabtree to Fox Sports.
"Crabtree,'' he said. "Don't you open your mouth about the best, or I'm gonna shut it for you real quick."
Sherman was bothered by the fact that the postgame rant became a wide topic of discussion and that people would call him a thug.
"The reason it bothers me is it seems that's the accepted way now to call someone the N-word," Sherman said, according to ESPN. "They say thug, and that takes me aback. Maybe I'm talking loudly on the field and saying things I'm not supposed to, but there was hockey game where they didn't even play hockey. They just threw the puck aside and started fighting. I thought, 'Oh man. I'm the thug? Geez.'"
Sherman was eluding to the line brawl that occurred between the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames on Saturday night.
"I know some real thugs, and they know I'm the farthest thing from a thug,'' Sherman said per ESPN. "I fought that my whole life because of where I've come from [the Compton neighborhood in Los Angeles]."
While Sherman wasn't a fan of the criticism he received, but he did say that he did receive some support that he was grateful for.
"There were countless individuals, and Hank Aaron was one of them," Sherman told ESPN. "A lot of people reached out with support and I appreciate all of it, people who really know who you are and what you stand for. They are not as quick to judge."
Sherman will hope that after four days of talking about it, he can put the rant behind him and focus on facing the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium on Feb. 2.
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