Richard Sherman Snubs Tom Brady

Richard Sherman is a big-play cornerback with a big mouth. So, given Seattle’s bye week, the third-year player figured to get attention one way or another. He’s done so with a column at MMQB–he writes one there weekly–in which he ranks the five smartest quarterbacks in the National Football League.

“After three seasons, I feel like I’ve watched and played enough pro football to be an authority on the league’s smartest quarterbacks,” Sherman notes. The All-Pro cornerback ranks Peyton Manning number one but writes that sometimes “he throws ducks.” Drew Brees, who won on the road in Philadelphia Saturday night, “makes incredible adjustments during the game.” He ranks his own quarterback, Russell Wilson, behind Aaron Rogers, and places his Stanford teammate Andrew Luck in the fifth spot.

Who’s missing? That guy with three Super Bowl rings in New England. Sherman rationalized leaving Brady off the list with the five-word catchphrase familiar to any attendee of a Patriots press conference: “It is what it is.”

Given New England’s propensity to transform disrespect into motivation, and the possibility of a Seahawks-Patriots Super Bowl, Sherman’s omission leaves his readers flipping the script: Does goading Tom Brady make Richard Sherman one of the five smartest cornerbacks in the league?

According to Richard Sherman, Richard Sherman clearly is one of the five smartest cornerbacks. “I’m at the top of my field,” Sherman announced on ESPN’s First Take on March 7, 2013. “I’m an All-Pro. I’m one of the best 22 players in the NFL.” He lit into co-host Skip Bayless. “In my 24 years of life, I’m better at life than you,” Sherman told Bayless, whom he labeled “ignorant,” “pompous,” “egotistical,” and, a word that has thus far escaped the notice of Merriam-Webster, “cretintin.”

Is this what psychologists mean by “projection”?

Sherman also has had runs-ins with the quarterback Bayless compares to Michael Jordan. After Seattle defeated New England in 2012, Sherman, who had intercepted a Tom Brady pass during the 24-23 victory, taunted the quarterback as he departed the field. Later, Sherman took to Twitter, and famously asked Brady: “u mad bro?”