BRADY HENDERSON

Seahawks’ Richard Sherman: No regrets about sideline blowup

Oct 19, 2016, 6:51 PM | Updated: Oct 20, 2016, 9:38 am

RENTON – The only thing Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman regrets about his blowup Sunday was the Atlanta touchdown that preceded it. Asked Wednesday if he wishes he would have done anything differently with regards to how he handled himself on the sideline afterward, Sherman was unequivocal that he doesn’t.

“No,” he said, “nothing at all.”

Sherman spoke Wednesday for the second time since losing his cool during the third quarter of Seattle’s win over Atlanta, after miscommunication in the secondary led to a breakdown in coverage and a 36-yard touchdown reception by Julio Jones. Previously unseen video from “Inside the NFL” of the aftermath of the play (embedded below) shows what appeared to set Sherman off: defensive coordinator Kris Richard yelling at him as he came off the field following the Falcons’ point after attempt. Fireworks ensued.

Sherman said he’s had a conversation with Richard since then, “but nothing outside of the norm. I think everything is pretty much understood.”

 

The common theme of Sherman’s responses to questions about his sideline outburst was moving on.

“It’s a new week, another opponent,” he said when asked about how he’s feeling three days later. “Everything kinda starts over.”

Any fallout from the incident that he’s had to deal with?

“No. No. We’re a ballclub. Things happen,” he said. “We came out with the win and we move on to next week.”

While Sherman stopped well short of saying there’s no lingering friction over what happened, coach Pete Carroll essentially did.

“We’re in good shape,” he said. “Our guys have worked all that through and we’re in great shape. Not worried about it a bit.”

Sherman’s sideline outburst was by far the most intense of any the Seahawks have had during a game in Carroll’s tenure. Wide receiver Doug Baldwin, though, said that was “mild” compared to others he’s seen from Sherman during the 10 years they’ve known each other, first as teammates at Stanford and since 2011 with Seattle.

“We play a violent sport, so at times you’re going to have passionate people display their passion,” he said. “And in those situations, crucial situations, when you make mistakes, when you give up plays and things don’t go your way, sometimes that passion comes out. But the thing about football players, athletes, our locker room (specifically), we have some great leaders in there, and Sherm being one of them. When instances like that happen, it’s very easy for us to get back on the same page and continue to go forward because we’ve been through it before.

“You go through that (adversity) so much as a team, as a family, you can reconcile it very quickly and get back to your purpose.”

After trying to calm him down following his outburst, several teammates rallied around Sherman on the sideline Sunday, trying to work him back up as Seattle’s defense was about to go back on the field.

“We know each other. We understand each other,” linebacker K.J. Wright said. “It’s happened at practice several times. So if it happens, cool, correct it, fix it, move on. That’s what we did. We moved on and we found a way to finish the game, and then we corrected it the next day.”

Wright said teammates told Sherman on the sideline, “‘Hey, we’ve got two more quarters to go. It’s cool. Just calm down,’ and just help him understand that we’ve got to win this game, because if you get mad and blow up and we lose this game, it’s going to be really bad. But we found a way to come together as team and figure it out and finish together.”

Wright acknowledged that the friction lingered in the couple series after the incident.

“Yeah,” he said, “but we fixed it though.”

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