The Sports Thread #1 For 1/23/14: A Handshake That Never Was

After all the analysis and conversation from sports and non-sports journalists, black and non-black people, and confrontational and non-confrontational people sharing their thoughts on Richard Sherman, let's just get back to the main reason on why he is a crossover star now.

I waited to talk about this specifically when I saw the final audio from Sherman on "Inside the NFL" last night after his tip ball denied Michael Crabtree the winning touchdown and sent the Seahawks to the Super Bowl.

I wanted to see if he didn't say "Good game" while reaching his hand out to Crabtree before the receiver (who is not a "sorry" receiver by the way) smacked his helmet.

After seeing the video and hearing the audio, I believe more strongly that Sherman was being a proper sportsman and thought Crabtree would give him his due respect after making such a fantastic play.

It was the type of extraordinary moment to decide a great game where the losing man has to say, "Just too good."

Sherman probably thought that Crabtree would just reward him on one of the greatest defensive tip balls of all time and let bygones be bygones with the tension between the two for the moment.
Unfortunately, Crabtree was still too mad and amped up to just reward Sherman on a great play in tipping Colin Kaepernick's throw intended for him.

Crabtree's disrespect there to Sherman when the cornerback reached for his hand in a gesture of sportsmanship is what fueled Sherman to launch his now famous (or infamous) postgame rant.

Sherman would not have called Crabtree "sorry" in that postgame interview with Erin Andrews if Crabtree had given him respect and been mature to congratulate him on that great play.

Of course Crabtree is going to be upset that he was so close to winning the game over Sherman that he wouldn't be ready to congratulate his adversary. But sometimes you have to accept someone making "too good" of a play and say "it wasn't meant for us to win." And Crabtree clearly failed to do that.

And after hearing Sherman's comments, Crabtree definitely wanted to negate any Sherman accolades by saying he made "one play a day" and that he was able to get open throughout the game. Sherman didn't have one-on-one coverage on Crabtree all the time and the talented wide receiver did show how valuable he is to Kaepernick once again with another solid game.

Still, for him to imply that he was getting open on Sherman on a regular basis is just pure sour grapes from a devastated member of the losing team.

Luckily for him, he has escaped getting the label of a bad sport that Sherman has gotten all week, as well as all the racist clowns call him a thug, a monkey and,  well, "nigger" too like the former Stanford receiver turned cornerback has gotten.

A backlash of hate and irrationally that could have never been if Crabtree just accepted a quick handshake after an extraordinary, championship defying play for the ages.