Seahawks’ Richard Sherman is Much More Than Just Talk [View all]

[Cali_Democrat]

Great New York Times piece detailing Sherman's journey from Compton, CA....to Stanford and to the NFL.

Seahawks’ Richard Sherman is Much More Than Just Talk
By BEN SHPIGELJAN. 25, 2014


COMPTON, Calif. — Darryl Smith was dividing the pizzas among the boys’ track and field athletes of Dominguez High School when he first heard the voice he would never forget. It belonged to this scrawny, knock-kneed eighth grader who had tagged along with his older brother, who was eating all the slices and dominating all the conversations and somehow, it seemed, doing both at once.

“I didn’t know if he was a good student or anything else,” Smith said. “All I knew was that he talked a lot. A lot.”
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Smith’s introduction to that younger brother, Richard Sherman, was not unlike a majority of the nation’s. His outburst on live television last Sunday, minutes after he made a critical defensive play that launched the Seattle Seahawks into Super Bowl XLVIII, catapulted him, at least for a few news cycles, into a realm of renown reserved for presidents and reality TV stars. Anyone interested in listening to Sherman explain his emotions, and himself, could have turned on CNN, which broadcast his Wednesday news conference live.

That Sherman has achieved this level of celebrity surprises few among his friends and family. That he is recognized less for his All-Pro cornerback skills than his swagger and his dreadlocks matters not. His older brother, Branton, said it was “destined to happen” because Sherman believes that he can create his own reality through visualization. Whatever he wants, whatever he needs — if he envisions it happening, it will.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/sports/football/seahawks-richard-sherman-is-much-more-than-just-talk.html?_r=0