Erin Andrews, the FOX reporter who “interviewed” Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman when he went on what has been described as an “epic” post-game rant, said was not scared or frightened and that Sherman is one of her favorite players on and off the field.
“I was more scared about what was going to come out of my mouth–just to follow-up what he was saying,” Andrews told GQ magazine in an interview. “The second he was just kind of losing it, I was like: Alright, do I transition to, OK, so, well, let’s talk about the Super Bowl? Or do I make sure that everybody at home, that didn’t know the storyline of what was going on, knew who he was talking about, what he was talking about? Because I’ve had some people that aren’t big football fans say to me, “I had no idea what he was talking about.”
She said people were wrong to assume that she was scared.
“No! I was just more concerned that I followed up and did the right thing and not anything that made me, or him, look stupid,” she said. “I think it’s silly. He never threatened me; he’s actually one of my favorite NFL players, on and off the field. I think because I sat there and I was just staring off into space, people thought I was frightened, I didn’t know what to do.
“I was actually thinking, OK, what is my next question here? What do I do? But yeah, I pretty much knew as soon as he started losing his mind on the interview: Yep, this is going viral. No athletes ever really give raw, pure emotion like that, so that’s why I think everybody’s kind of freaking out about it.”
Sherman has apologized to his teammates for taking attention away from their accomplishments and the Stanford alum has repeatedly emphasized that he is a model citizen off the field in response to being called a “thug” and the slurs that were hurled at him after his interview.