- Richard Sherman's beef
with Jim Harbaugh started at college, graduated to the NFL,
and had a larger impact than any of us knew at the time.
Oh the power of pettiness and spite.
(slow orchestral music)
It took a while for the Richard Sherman
we now know to come into view,
but in a lot of ways he was shaped by Jim Harbaugh.
Before he was a Super Bowl winning, All-Pro shutdown corner,
Sherman was a wide receiver.
Granted, he was a receiver on an inept Stanford offense
that sometimes made him look like the defender he'd become,
but a receiver nonetheless.
It wasn't a great team nor had it been,
so at the end of Sherman's freshman year
his path crossed with Harbaugh's for the first time,
and initially the pair felt like a good fit,
Sherman being a dedicated tough kid on a mission to win,
and Harbaugh, the proud Michigan man who never hid the fact
that he didn't really have any plans
other than football and death.
He wanted to win,
he wanted to put in the work needed to win,
and he wanted players who'd do the same.
So that's great,
just a couple of guys passionate about football,
looking to win at whatever cost.
I'm sure they'll see eye-to-eye.
Through their first eight games together Stanford tripled
their win total from a year earlier.
They pulled off a major upset of number two USC
and a face that we'll see more of later on.
Sherman was once again the team's top receiver,
and then the hiccups began.
Against Washington, Sherman's emotions overflowed
on the sideline, which was picked up by cameras
as he shouted and he shoved teammates.
As a result, Harbaugh suspended Sherman for their next game.
Once he returned, he had just one catch
for five yards over their final two games.
He still finished as the team's leading receiver,
but the last month led to him looking for a major change.
He wanted to flip sides,
but offensive coordinator David Shaw said
he was too valuable.
Unfortunately a lingering patellar tendon injury meant
neither offense nor defense got him.
After hobbling through the first four games of 2008,
he went under the knife and declared his season over.
The fun bit, he seemed to have forgotten
to run that by Harbaugh first.
Talking to the media,
the head coach was questioned about Sherman's health,
and Harbaugh said he had thought they'd have him still,
but didn't read the receiver's Facebook for medical updates.
Once away from the microphones,
Harbaugh tackled the matter by telling Sherman
he had given up on his teammates by having the surgery.
Out with an injury, on the outs with his head coach,
Sherman again went to Shaw and asked for a change.
Given the circumstances,
which included Harbaugh allegedly banishing
him from the offense, this time the request was approved.
Once news got out, Harbaugh noted that
he wasn't sure Sherman could beat out
even the guys at the bottom of the depth chart.
Maybe coach knew what he was doing, maybe he got lucky,
but those words made sure Sherman was fired up.
He dominated the off-season, shot up the depth chart,
and admittedly was somewhat aided
by knowing the offense inside and out.
He would call out plays pre-snap,
or just walk over to where the route would take the receiver
and make an easy interception.
Harbaugh to no surprise did not approve,
but by the time the 2009 season came around
with Sherman starting at corner,
regardless of the path traveled they got to the right place,
and the pair looked pretty happy with the results,
which included an Orange Bowl demolition of Virginia Tech
to cap off 2010.
Then, one week later, Harbaugh was gone,
off to the 49ers with a trail
of peak Harbaugh quotes to mark the path,
and that April presented the biggest weekend
in terms of beef implications.
With Harbaugh already in the NFL,
Sherman came to join him.
San Francisco happened to need corners,
and obviously Harbaugh had a pretty good feel
for one in particular,
which meant they went a different route.
Even though San Francisco had a third-round grade
on Sherman, which Niners CEO Jed York revealed much later on,
there was no chance Sherman
would have gotten a call from the Niners
because Harbaugh had taken him
off their draft board entirely.
He'd hear his name during the 5th round,
but it was a slide that made Sherman believe
his former coach hadn't been doing him any favors
when talking to other teams.
There were rumors of something
like this happening at the time,
but the fun part of this beef is it would take years
for all the details to come out,
or for people like Jed York to offer the bits
that fully painted the picture.
Whether or not Harbaugh said anything
that hurt Sherman's value,
there are two clear facts.
First, there were 24 cornerbacks taken before Sherman,
and second when he was selected at 154 overall,
he landed in the best possible spot.
Not only had he studied the corner techniques coached
by Pete Carroll as he learned the position,
but he also got a new coach who had beef with his old coach.
Carroll's history with Harbaugh was well-documented,
same with their personality differences.
So while Sherman's college days were
somewhat stifling to his personality,
that wouldn't be the case in Seattle.
He was in a place where he could be himself,
and when Sherman got to be himself,
the beef got to bloom.
His rookie season, most of the focus was
understandably put on Harbaugh and Carroll,
but as the secondary embraced
their new Legion of Boom moniker going into the 2012 season,
Sherman stole back some of the spotlight.
After their week-seven showdown
in which the 49ers eked out a defensive win,
Harbaugh still spoke out
about the physical play of Seattle's secondary,
going so far as to say he'd talk to the league about it.
Sherman's response gave a glimpse
to his feelings on Harbaugh, calling him a bully,
which the coach kind of backed up after the game.
Harbaugh celebrated his team's win
by driving around the parking lot
and honking at the Seahawks team buses,
offering a mock salute according to Sherman
and his fellow Stanford alum Doug Baldwin.
Considering that showboating happened after a 13-6 win,
it feels like a possible lapse in judgment,
especially with the power of hindsight.
Sherman began to work into the conversations
about the league's top corners.
He nicknamed himself Optimus Prime,
then immediately shut Megatron down.
He had a two-interception day against Arizona,
plus his first career touchdown,
and then Seattle welcomed Harbaugh
to town for a pretty important week-sixteen contest
that turned into a one-sided affair.
Sherman notched his seventh interception on the season,
but even bigger than that,
put a second-quarter nail in the coffin
by returning a blocked field goal 90 yards
to make it 21-nothing.
It got so bad that Sherman was even trying to get Carroll
to chase Seattle's third straight 50-point game.
His coach declined though,
telling Sherman they had more class than that,
but after the game the corner needed
to pour a little more salt in the wound.
During his postgame interview on the field
he wished his old coach a happy birthday,
which on one hand was sweet of him to remember,
and on the other,
this was Sherman using a national broadcast to honk back.
But he had plenty to celebrate.
Not only had they won the game,
but Sherman also won his appeal
of a four-game suspension the NFL
had thrown his way earlier that season.
Having him helped Seattle's chances come the playoffs,
and we were actually so close
to getting a third Niners-Seahawks matchup
on an even grander stage,
but Atlanta's last-second field goal meant it wouldn't be.
Instead, on his second attempt in as many years,
Harbaugh took his team to the Super Bowl,
and although they lost,
those first two years were a little lopsided football-wise.
San Francisco had won three
of the four head-to-head matchups.
They had made the NFC Championship game each year,
came so close to a Lombardi Trophy,
and then that off-season everything cranked the (beep) up.
Harbaugh spoke out about the suspensions
in the Seahawks secondary
and encouraged them to play by the rules,
really putting on his Michigan hat to do so.
Sherman tried to distance himself a bit
from Harbaugh with his response,
a path drastically different from the one
his teammate Brandon Browner took,
but speaking to SI, it was Sherman's father
who really stoked the flames by describing
his son's relationship with Harbaugh as a passionate hate.
As more and more quotes came out in the open,
the duo was under a bit more of a microscope,
especially when they faced off,
which brings us to week two of 2013.
Sherman snagged a pick,
Harbaugh's offense only managed a field goal,
and Seattle cruised,
but the highlight of the night came after the game
when Sherman sprinted after Harbaugh as he left the field,
slapped him on the butt,
then ran away as Harbaugh sorta kinda acknowledged the PDA.
This then sent a thousand ships sailing into the night,
all carrying various takes.
Here's where I'll note that while Sherman
does have valid grievances against Harbaugh,
he also has a gift for crafting narratives
that might be slightly flawed,
not unlike a wrestling promoter,
but since he's not a wrestling promoter,
he then has to walk them back.
When asked about the butt slap after the game,
the corner said that Harbaugh essentially blew him off.
In his mind the attempted sportsmanship went unanswered.
Harbaugh said that he had offered his congratulations
and just wasn't totally sure
who was patting his butt at that moment.
If nothing else he played nice in the media
and didn't stir the pot.
Sherman, when further clarifying, recounted the events
as if he was at a deposition.
So, maybe not a big deal,
maybe both sides had matured
and this had been overblown from the start.
I mean that same season Sherman said he didn't hate anyone,
he was simply passionate,
and when it came to the 49ers,
he might not like them,
but it's not like that's some wild statement
considering they're division rivals.
The actual wild statement would come not long after.
His "it's passion, not hate" quote was part
of the lead up to the 2013 NFC Championship game.
In what became a very close contest,
the climactic moment came as Colin Kaepernick looked
for Michael Crabtree on what
could've been the game-winning touchdown,
but Sherman made an incredible play on the ball,
popped it up and into the hands of Malcolm Smith,
and as his teammates gathered around,
Sherman celebrated in the end zone
then sprinted over to Crabtree and offered a handshake.
Sherman continued his tour
with a choking motion aimed at the 49ers sideline,
which all paved the way
for a legendary postgame interview with Erin Andrews
where Sherman showed humility and gratitude and--
- I'm the best corner in the game!
When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree,
that's the result you gonna get!
Don't you ever talk about me!
- But no one listened to him, myself included.
We all had to talk about him.
Despite making the play
that sent the Seahawks to the Super Bowl,
Sherman quickly went into apology mode,
saying he never meant to distract from the team
and what they accomplished as a unit.
His feud with Crabtree stole the show for a bit
as more details came out like how they had got into it
during a charity softball game during the summer,
and while he did name Crabtree specifically in his rant,
it took away from his message.
The outburst was aimed at his old coach,
his dislike, any ill-will for the Niners,
it started and ended with Harbaugh.
A lot went down between the postgame rant and that quote,
which came out in 2020
ahead of the 49ers Super Bowl appearance.
By then the corner was capping off his second season
in the Bay and everyone continued to say,
"Hey, isn't it wild how Sherman used to not like the Niners,
"but now he's on the Niners?"
So it made some sense that talk focused on Harbaugh,
but he offered a lot more details
than one would've expected
considering they hadn't faced off
in the better part of a decade.
The beefiest revelation was that Sherman had been
on a mission to force Harbaugh out of the league,
and before York and Sherman
officially teamed up in San Francisco,
they had essentially worked together
to fulfill Sherman's dream.
After he ended the Niners season and then after he did
what Harbaugh hadn't by winning a Super Bowl,
the narrative around the coach shifted a bit.
He did what no one had ever done
by making a conference championship game
in each of his first three seasons as head coach,
and yet rumors arose that even a Super Bowl victory
in 2014 wouldn't be enough to save his job.
York quickly tried to shut those rumors down
but details were coming to the surface.
An internal power struggle between Harbaugh
and GM Trent Baalke had made it
so the coach's days were numbered,
and after they missed the playoffs,
the Niners said they had mutually agreed to part ways.
Harbaugh would later say that wasn't completely accurate,
but the deed was done, and to return to Sherman's quote
about ousting his former coach,
once he'd done that he was cool.
Harbaugh quickly returned to the college ranks
where his unique approach could truly shine,
but to his credit,
without Harbaugh the 2015 NFL season had something lacking.
Harbaugh had gotten his teams to buy into a hatred
for the Seahawks, one he actively helped cultivate.
Unfortunately he was going against someone
who was driven by something similar, yet even more personal.
Harbaugh had lit a fire under Sherman,
one that the corner seemed to fan as much as he wanted,
or possibly as much as he needed to for motivation.
Over the years it came into and out of focus
depending on who was in the news.
It was found in two competitive individuals,
both capable of extreme pettiness, driven by success,
and then at a certain point each side decided
they had cooked the shit out of this piece of beef
and it was best left in the trash
where no one would attempt to salvage a damn thing.