Richard Sherman has been accused of taunting Michael Crabtree on the field after the Seattle Seahawks defeated the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game, but you could actually argue that he didn’t. While Sherman had plenty of unkind words for Crabtree during his postgame interview with Erin Andrews, what he said directly to Crabtree wasn’t bad at all.
Sherman was mic’ed up during the game, and NFL.com’s SoundFX aired some of the footage on Wednesday night. If you watch the video of the game-clinching interception, you’ll see that all Sherman said to Crabtree was, “Hell of a game, hell of a game.” Crabtree then shoved him in the face.
So I guess you could argue that Sherman didn’t say anything bad. However, even he admitted in his postgame interview with Ed Werder that he doesn’t like people “running their mouth” and was basically telling Crabtree “nice try” by sprinting over to him.
Sherman didn’t swear or insult Crabtree to his face, but it’s probably safe to say he wasn’t being genuine. We already know the hostility between the two players dates back to an offseason charity event, so I don’t blame Crabtree for thinking (or knowing) that Sherman was mocking him. We all know what “hell of a game” really meant.
