Richard Sherman is my new favorite Seahawk. Not only an incredible athelete – but a shrewd businessman. While I do believe that part of his infamous post game interview with Erin Andrews was an emotional outburst – I also believe at least part of it was part of the master plan. Richard Sherman is a smart guy – Graduated from Stanford with a communications degree. He probably has given some thought about managing the media.
Was it a coincidence that his new Beats commercial documenting his reputation as a thug debuted during the game? Richard Sherman is a man who knows how to build his brand. Do you think he gave some thought how best to position himself against golden boy Peyton Manning during the two week media frenzy preceding the Super Bowl?
Below is a chart from Google on the top searches on the day of the NFC Championship:
More than twice as many searches as the next most popular search term. That’s not easy to accomplish with a 30 second interview. I think it will be an interesting couple of weeks to see how the NFL manages this incursion into their brand. My guess is they will be all for it – build in the reality show angle of crazy personalities. Most of America thinks Richard Sherman typifies what is wrong with game of NFL Football. I agree his antics my tarnish the game, but I think he is providing an interesting model for other players to follow in the business of NFL Football.