When Seahawks star Richard Sherman sat down at his podium Tuesday for Super Bowl Media Day, the first question someone asked him was about whether the controversy of the past week will improve his personal brand.
The fallout from his postgame rant two Sundays ago, when he called 49ers wideout Michael Crabtree a “mediocre” receiver, helped drive even more attention toward the NFL and the Super Bowl. The sideline interview and his subsequent comments caused an avalanche of negative reaction — much of it racist — on Twitter and other social media.
Well, as they say: Any press is good press. At least for someone.
“The NFL always wins,” Sherman wrote in his latest column Tuesday for Sports Illustrated’s Monday Morning Quarterback site. “Every time a game ends on a controversial call or somebody loses it on camera, it’s free advertising for the NFL. It’s not just my name being talked about on all the shows; it’s the NFL’s logo on all the shows.
“That means more eyes on the Super Bowl, more clicks for their websites, and potentially more sales of my jersey, for which I don’t see a kickback. Even when they’re taking the money out of my pockets with fines, the league is constantly winning.”
Sherman said he didn’t realize quite how large the Super Bowl stage is. “My one little rant made it onto CNBC and CNN,” he wrote.
Welcome to the national media circus. It’s a bit different than just the Seattle press corps, ain’t it?
Sherman drew as big of a crowd as did Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning at Media Day on Tuesday at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. The reporters and photographers were dozens deep, all yelling questions his way about the public’s reaction to him and how he is dealing with the ongoing brouhaha.
You can watch the NFL Network’s broadcast of Sherman’s comments online. His MMQB column, titled “10 things I learned after America learned about me,” can be read on Sports Illustrated’s website.
