Remember that Richard Sherman interview at the end of last year’s NFC Championship Game?
Even though Sherman was in a physical state roughly equivalent to post-orgasm, the “real” nature of that interview — one athlete calling out another athlete, a rival — scared some. It led to a popular narrative that he was, essentially, “a thug.”
Remember Russell Wilson crying after the big comeback over the Packers in the next NFC Championship?
That led to this:
https://twitter.com/SunTimesSTL/status/558074073029554178
Almost everyone I converse with regularly about sports, be they from Seattle or Boston or some point in between, tells me the essential narrative here is that the Seahawks are “fake” and the Patriots are “cheaters.” Why is that the default?
I’ve written about the whole Marshawn Lynch vs. the media thing before — I think it’s a bit immature, sure, but I also think those interviews are almost always meaningless and it’s kind of funny that he trolls the media and gets the old guard riled up — but I guess in this situation, that’s neither here nor there.
This Seahawks team is a bunch of people who speak their mind, essentially — Sherman basically did a skit this November at the expense of the NFL — and yet, when they do, the narrative we want to assign to them is “fake” or “the act is tired.” Isn’t speaking your mind on stupid shit, like how profit-driven the NFL has become and its lack of support for the players that play the games that generate the profit, supposed to be a good thing?
Today and today only I will like the @Patriots bc everyday w/o exception I hate the @Seahawks and the fake 12th man fans #bandwagon
— Luca del Rosso (@LucadelRosso) February 1, 2015
https://twitter.com/BrianPaneral/status/560937555420798977
Old, tired, fake … I actually think this is interesting in some ways.
There’s not a lot of places in society for real, open transparency — we barely listen to each other, the notion of “respect” is viewed as something you have to schedule, people forget about empathy when they consider leadership, etc.
So maybe, when we see it — like a Richard Sherman rant or skit, or Russell Wilson crying after a football game despite the fact that he’s supposed to be “a warrior,” or Marshawn Lynch refusing to discuss random shit with the media — we instantly assign it a qualification that must be negative.
I know I just made a huge psychological leap here, but consider this: is the fact that people consider the Seahawks’ act “tired” or “classless” or “fake” actually a representation of the whole idea that America right now can’t tolerate actual honesty, and just needs bullshit small talk everywhere?
Maybe.
What’s your take?
(This whole anti-Seahawks attitude could come from other places, of course: they’re on the verge of becoming a dynasty, which people run from, and their coach seemed a little shady back at USC — plus he might be a 9/11 truther.)
