Re: Around the NFL Championship Weekend
 

[quote=JoeRedskin;1056960]Sherman's subsequent responses, as far as I can tell, have been reasonable and solid reactions. Based on those, I have a higher opinion of him than I did before the game.[/quote]

For me, it's felt more like damage control. I mean he's obviously well-spoken, but like I said earlier, you can name a NUMBER of great DBs in this league and they aren't surrounded by controversy like he is. This last outburst was just the icing on the cake.

Re: Around the NFL Championship Weekend
 

It surprised me. I knew people would criticize it, but the monkey this and shoot the monkey in head tweets caught me off guard.

[QUOTE=Gary84Clark;1056975]It surprised me. I knew people would criticize it, but the monkey this and shoot the monkey in head tweets caught me off guard.[/QUOTE]

People are haters and yes they may not really be racist like in the 60s but they just use the word because they are lazy and think it's ok. I learned a long time ago that racism will never leave, whites vs blacks , blacks vs whites , hell I have native American friends that don't like any other race. Just the way it goes

Re: Around the NFL Championship Weekend
 

[quote=Mattyk;1056972]What Sherman said really wasn't a big deal, but for those that saw it live don't tell me you weren't like WTF was that all about? That type of reaction leads to it being talked about and dissected all week. Just how it works.[/quote]

The follow up comment is this: the NFL and Seattle love it. Like DP said, NFL and Seattle will make Sherman available all week for every interview and want him to keep talking. Folks, the NFL loves it. They love the show, it gets people to talk about football who normally may not, and then they develop an opinion and ultimatly tune in.

Re: Around the NFL Championship Weekend
 

My 2 cents on the word thug, Ive never considered it racist and if it wasnt for 2 Pac it wouldnt be used that much. He propelled the word in his music and tattoo and made it apart of the culture.

Re: Around the NFL Championship Weekend
 

[url=http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/10338529/mike-pettine-expected-offered-job-cleveland-browns]Mike Pettine expected to be offered job by Cleveland Browns - ESPN[/url]

Woo Hoo!!!

Re: Around the NFL Championship Weekend
 

[quote=TheMalcolmConnection;1056974]For me, it's felt more like damage control. I mean he's obviously well-spoken, but like I said earlier, you can name a NUMBER of great DBs in this league and they aren't surrounded by controversy like he is. This last outburst was just the icing on the cake.[/quote]


Precisely. Like most public apologies, that's exactly what it looks like. What he sits down and types up for a blog (and probably has input from others) or an interview he's prepped for with his PR team doesn't show you what kind of man he is...the way he reacts in the heat of battle does. Based on that with MANY examples over the past couple of years, he's an instigating headcase comes off as a thug on the field.

It's no surprise that multiple players have basically said "get out of my face" in one way or the other. He tracks players down to taunt, trash talk and as I said, instigate after plays and after games.

Whether it's Crabtree, Steve Smith, Trent Williams or anyone else, there's a definite pattern of behavior going on with Sherman.

Re: Around the NFL Championship Weekend
 

[quote=skinsfaninok;1056987][url=http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/10338529/mike-pettine-expected-offered-job-cleveland-browns]Mike Pettine expected to be offered job by Cleveland Browns - ESPN[/url]

Woo Hoo!!![/quote]

Wow, they found someone!

The rumor was that if Pettine was hired, he'd like to bring in Packers RB Coach Alex Van Pelt (former Pitt and longgggggtime Bills backup QB) as OC.

Also, Jason Campbell expected to be released because he triggered salary incentives for playing so much.

He played fairly well for them actually. He's better than Weeden and Hoyer just had ACL surgery so they better have e draft plan at QB.

Re: Around the NFL Championship Weekend
 

[quote=Chico23231;1056981]My 2 cents on the word thug, Ive never considered it racist and if it wasnt for 2 Pac it wouldnt be used that much. He propelled the word in his music and tattoo and made it apart of the culture.[/quote]

It has more to do with behavior than skin color. Heck, Justin Bieber is acting like a thug (or trying to) and he's the whitest singer since Michael Jackson.

Re: Around the NFL Championship Weekend
 

[quote=Gary84Clark;1056966]Back to the subject of Sherman. He was called all types of monkeys. Monkey was the favorite word thug was second. Your philosophy on bigotry reveals a special kind of hatred, but this is a football thread so who cares.[/quote]

My last word on this and only b/c the "special hatred" comment. To be clear, I have no "special kind of hatred" towards any racial group or any individual solely b/c they belong to a certain racial group. While I disagree with how broadly you appear to categorize people as racists, I absolutely agree that, in the context presented, a significant number of the comments made in response to Sherman's initial outburst were intended to be derogatory and used terms that were intended to be specifically related to race.

I think it a danger to place any word on the "censor list of automatic public condemnation" because it empowers the word, emasculates discussion and favors mob mentality over considered thought. In that light, I simply, and strongly disagree, with adding "thug" to the "you said X so you are a racist" list.

Re: Around the NFL Championship Weekend
 

[url=http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/10334429/cheerleaders-file-suit-oakland-raiders-wage-theft-unfair-employment-practices]Cheerleaders file suit against Oakland Raiders for wage theft, unfair employment practices - ESPN[/url]

I will be interested to see how this turns out. These women put in lots of hours, act as emissaries/saleswomen for the team and are held to all sorts of ridiculous requirements. At the same time, it is one of those - if you don't want to do all this stuff for the "honor" of being an NFL cheerleader, we got 500 women who will come in tomorrow to do what we ask of you.

I would imagine much relies on what is in the employment contract and how they are classified within it. Of course, if the suit is successful, a bunch of teams will probably just eliminate cheerleaders ... and that could be even more controversial than eliminating PAT's. lol

Re: Around the NFL Championship Weekend
 

Sherman's appearance at that particular moment - having just saved the game, adrenaline roaring through his system, dreadlocks lashing his shoulder pads - was not a comforting image for (white) football fans. What he said was ridiculously confrontational and a rejection of what we like to view as "sportsmanship." We don't like to see that. But as one sportswriter observed, just what do you expect when you grab these guys coming off the field - a field in which extreme and dangerous violence is commonplace, necessary, and admired? These guys are pretty amped up.

My personal experience with racism - as a black man observing it in white society - is that it usually isn't of the activist/advocacy, white-power type. Usually, it is instead a banal and thoughtless assumption, made [I]a priori[/I], fundamental to the worldview, but out of sight, a forgotten brick in the wall. It's mental furniture, and the people who think that way would be enormously offended if you suggested that this forgotten assumption is actively informing the way they think.

The bell is often being rung, but it's mostly not deliberate and they don't hear it. If they did, most would certainly adjust their language.

But trying to get them to hear it is very, very difficult.

Richie Incognito was often referred to as a "thug" from what I saw and heard. And worse. He deserved it. Probably still does. Sherman's comments weren't thuggish, IMO. Sherman is brash. He's outspoken. I don't find anything he said particularly objectionable, and knowing the history and how that game went between he and Crabtree it's even less so. But people generally don't wait to hear even most of the facts before leaping to conclusions, it seems (SEE: posters aplenty the last few pages). Sherman's mouth was running, and so he's wrong. For some of them, he's wrong because he's black. For others, he's just wrong for talking trash after a game.

I think we can all agree that the proper term for Richard Sherman is "asshole". This is a race neutral term. Or maybe not. As I said, and others have observed, it was a particularly intense moment.

I think his apology was more than sufficient.

Re: Around the NFL Championship Weekend
 

I just love how so many people think in terms of skin color first and in every situation. :doh:

A raving lunatic is a raving lunatic no matter what color his skin is. Incognito is a thug and Sherman behaves like one too, not because he looks like Busta Rhymes and "scares" white people when he yells, because he's always picking fights on and off the field. He's had on-field fights, fights on Twitter (how mature) and he's been popped for cheating (PEDs).

My favorite athletes of all time just happen to have the same tone of skin...Monk, Green, Portis, Sean Taylor, Barry Sanders, Magic Johnson, Muggsy Bogues. Michael Jordan, Frank Thomas, Bo Jackson, Jim Thome, Paul Konerko...OK, most of them. :D

My distaste for players like Sherman, Dez Bryant, DeSean Jackson, Colin Kaepernick, Cam Newton, Tom Brady and others have nothing to do with race, it's how they behave, handle or present themselves.

I really believe the ones that cry racism around every corner are really the ones preoccupied with race. I won't go as far as calling you the name, but you see where I'm going...

This is why I'm also so sick of the media and politicians' fight over our "racist" team name. I've never seen it as racist because I know what it actually stands for and the history behind it. The ignorant of our society, no matter how educated or who they work for, seem to be the ones who be able to find racism in the name Redskins. Not even Native Americans, who are supposed to be offended, see the hate in the name. Only those with an agenda do.

Re: Around the NFL Championship Weekend
 

[quote=Monkeydad;1057011]I just love how so many people think in terms of skin color first and in every situation.

A raving lunatic is a raving lunatic no matter what color his skin is. Incognito is a thug and Sherman behaves like one too, not because he looks like Busta Rhymes and "scares" white people when he yells, because he's always picking fights on and off the field. He's had on-field fights, fights on Twitter (how mature) and he's been popped for cheating (PEDs).

My favorite athletes of all time just happen to have the same tone of skin...Monk, Green, Portis, Sean Taylor, Barry Sanders, Magic Johnson, Muggsy Bogues. Michael Jordan, Frank Thomas, Bo Jackson, Jim Thome, Paul Konerko...OK, most of them.

My distaste for players like Sherman, Dez Bryant, DeSean Jackson, Colin Kaepernick, Cam Newton, Tom Brady and others have nothing to do with race, it's how they behave, handle or present themselves.

I really believe the ones that cry racism around every corner are really the ones preoccupied with race. I won't go as far as calling you the name, but you see where I'm going...[/quote]Yeah, because your view of what he said and the response to it in the media is the only viable one and race had nothing, [I]nothing at all[/I], to do with anything here.

[I]Please.[/I]

I just love how so many people are willfully blind to what [I]is[/I] instead of dealing with it frankly.

And I don't give two tin craps what you want to imply that I am, because I can see that if that's what you're reduced to, your argument is [I]prima facie[/I] empty to begin with.

Doh, indeed. :rolleyes:

Re: Around the NFL Championship Weekend
 

Probably time to end this.