Richard Sherman-Inspired Family Feud

I thought it would be illuminating to include an email exchange with my father having to do with the Richard Sherman affair. I am sure this kind of back and forth is going on throughout the country. My father, who ran the half-mile for San Jose State in its track-&-field heyday, is a longtime 49ers fan who had been drifting towards the Seahawks because of my being a Seattleite and a big fan of this Pete Carroll team. (Also, check today's column by the Gray Lady's William Rhoden, "Seahawks’ Richard Sherman, Like Cornerbacks Before Him, Plays Man-to-Man and Goes Toe to Toe".)

Father: Just returned home from S.C. Watched game. You were right. Palesa's emotional body is even more sensitive than my own. We tuned in at the end of the second half, but it was too much for her, so we decided to wait until the end on the fourth quarter to resume watching. It was quite the dramatic ending. Fine! As I said, "May the best team win". We turned off the Sherman thing. Palesa was offended, as was I. No Postmodern rationalization can excuse it. This is perhaps a reaction to my exposure to English education -- Sport, the games of Gentlemen, the refinement of the code of Knight/Kinghood. I'll not wear my Seahawks cap again. Thug, Hitler, Bush, Ghetto talk, gangsterap all go together, ugly. Dredlocks (Rastaman/Higher Man), his sham. Caught on the stage, an arena, Hernandez, bully Dolphins, now this NFL gutter. Forgive me. Not for me! I'm leaving the area. One last gesture, Go Denver! It pains me to say so, Elway, Manning. I hope Seattle eats it. All my love, dad. . . see how the ugly lingers, Aesthetic=beauty. Remember Marley, "College and University graduating thieves and murderers"? Just goes to show our most prestigious (Sherman & Stanford?) educational institutions fail to pass on the importance of Character, and in this case, that Sport is the arena of Gentlemen. All my love, dad 

PS He regrets it even now I bet. If he needs ablution send him down here. I could work it out.

Son: White privilege, Dad, that's what I hear coming from you.

How come you're so offended? Of all the things to be outraged by? All Sherman said was he was the best. And guess what? He is the best cornerback in the league. No question.

I suppose you would have preferred to have the usual bromide of God and country and "Aw, shucks, the 49ers played like champions" served in loving spoonfuls to you in your televisual habitat. If you think Michael Crabtree somehow personifies the English Christian gentleman, you should scan the Internet more often. Fiat lux, baby,

Father: No. Its not about that. Its about ugly. Nobility in victory, not false modesty, but yeah it was a hard played game -- period? So Crabtree got to his football ego. He is still a man. But what is a Man, each, individual man, answerable to no one but himself -- and his God, Perfection, which he will and must answer to some day. He offended two innocent bystanders (Palesa & me) by his vomit of glorified, self exaltation on the NFL stage. I like a good sporting event, well played, hard played. I have no time for that self indulgent trash talk. Its not about Crabtee. Its about Sherman. Its about Sports. Its about Nobility of each and all. As Marley would say, The Rastaman, the Higher Man. And I would add the Buddha Land. Don't give me that gangster talk thing. Noble is Noble. Beauty is beauty. But beautiful body, athleticism, where is it without the spirit of nobility? Where is the beauty in the victory just so difficulty achieved? Silence and victory is sufficient for those who aspire to true victory. To show a dispirited, ugly heart is embarrassing, so two innocent spectators pulled the plug on him. No time for that in our world -- too offensive, in an offensive age. No more NFL for me, no more Seattle Seahawks. I've got to part ways with you on this one. Ugly is ugly, and he was the face of the ugly. What can the internet teach a man in his heart. dad

Son: All I'm asking is that you be a good Buddhist and inquire why it is this so offended you -- don't the Buddhists have a thing about reacting? -- and possibly it offended you -- entertain the possibility, Dad, read your first message -- is that it has to do with racial stereotypes. Tom Brady can chase an official off the field after a game, cursing him for a non-call that would have helped the Patriots beat the Panthers, and no one calls him "classless" or a "thug." This just happened a month or two back. Jim Harbaugh can harangue and grimace and wail and act like a toddler on the sideline -- a one man Greek chorus -- and no one calls him classless and makes demands for "Nobility."

Yet you stick a mic in Sherman's face down on the field adrenalin rushing right after he wins a championship game and despite the fact that he doesn't curse or really say anything offensive people are outraged and can talk of nothing else.

My position is that it struck a nerve in a supine, pacified, televisually hypnotized populace and that nerve was white privilege. We don't want an angry black man on our sacred screens. Gandhi, MLK Jr., Bob Marley, Mandela only, please.

I wish you luck in finding your "Higher Man" in the English Premier League. Adios, king.

****

Huffington Post put up audio this morning corroborating Richard Sherman's version of events that all he said to Michael Crabtree was "Good game." Also, here's a good story from yesterday's Huffington Post.

The Best

Briefly, a few words on the dust-up created by Richard Sherman's post-game interview with Fox Sports Erin Andrews.

Sherman won the game for the Seahawks with less than a minute to play when he batted Kaepernick's pass away from Crabtree in the end zone and into the awaiting arms of Malcolm Smith. It was an amazing, athletic play. (I anticipated that Sherman would have a large role in beating San Francisco.)

For people to be outraged at Sherman, adrenalin rushing after sewing up the NFC Championship Game, calling out Crabtree as a punk and then proclaiming in full throat that he is the best reminds us of something that most of us are already well aware -- shallow, idiotic, race-based snobbery is alive and kicking in "The Greatest Nation on Earth."™

Read Tommy Tomlinson's "22 Thoughts About That Richard Sherman Interview." He's on the money. And then, for a more culturally nuanced critique, check out Dave Zirin's "Richard Sherman, Racial Coding and Bombastic Brainiacs," which appeared on his Edge of Sports blog for The Nation.

One commentator, Javier, on Zirin's blog hit it when he said, 

I’ve never seen the word thug be used to describe Brady’s behavior. In this season, he literally chased down league officials, yelled and cursed calling their decision BS, imagine if at this moment Erin Andrews seeks the interview? Brady is allowed to intimidate the officials, but his character isn’t questioned.

White privilege, baby. The big American bugaboo. That's why I love the Seahawks so much. In this lily white corporate nirvana -- Boeing, Starbucks, Microsoft, Amazon -- that is the Emerald City, Seattle's transcendent professional football team is young and overwhelmingly black.

There is nothing but love for Richard Sherman in this town. We know who is he. We know he is smart, honest, tough -- sensitive, too; a great competitor. He is the personification of what makes the Seahawks new, different.

Conference Championship Game Picks

I’m going with the 49ers this Sunday. I don’t think the Falcons will run the ball on San Francisco the way they did against Seattle. Michael Turner and Jacquizz Rodgers will not rush for a combined 162 yards. This will put the game in the hands of Matt Ryan who threw two interceptions last week despite zero pass rush from the Seahawks. The 49ers will pressure Ryan and there will be turnovers. On defense last week the Falcons looked good in the first half but completely gassed in the second. San Francisco with Kaepernick, Vernon Davis, Michael Crabtree and Frank Gore are just too much for Atlanta even with its big advantage of playing in a noisy home dome. If Kaepernick starts jittery Harbaugh will sooth him on the sidelines and remind him that in due course the Falcons defense will collapse.

The AFC Championship Game has the potential to be a repeat of the disappointment experienced last year by all Ravens fans when Lee Evans failed to secure the winning grab in the end zone.

The soulless Belichik Patriots machine rumbles on year after year. Gronkowski’s absence will hurt. But Belichik’s football philosophy is that players have no spiritual dimension; they’re just replaceable parts. Running backs are a dime a dozen; so you have a new starter every year. On defense you trade away a Mike Vrabel, a Tedy Bruschi retires. No worries. You fish a Rob Ninkovich out of the free agent market. Even when your matinee idol quarterback goes down with a season-ending knee injury Week 1 you just slot in a Matt Cassel, who never really played in college, and he throws for nearly 3,700 yards, over 20 touchdowns and wins 10 games. Football is a product extruded from an industrial press. This is what the baleful Belichik represents. That’s why I'm going with the Ravens and Ray Lewis. Because beneath the suffocating weight of the corporate Leviathan we live day to day not for the bright lights and bags of Doritos but for a little taste of the heroic.