At first, I wondered if Richard Sherman knew what he was getting himself into when he said, “A.J. Green is just a lot of noise talking and bad routes.”
Sherman was a rookie when he said that, a fifth-round pick who had just started his first game, and Green was the No. 4 overall pick in the draft who was leading all rookie receivers.
Yeah, Sherman knew what he was doing: setting the tone for a playing career in which he was absolutely fearless in what he said publicly whether it was taunting an opponent or challenging his own coaches. He was setting the stage to become a sports media heavyweight whenever should he decide to get behind a desk. But now that he’s making that transition, I’m not so sure.
Richard Sherman is moving his podcast to The Volume, a podcast network co-produced by Colin Cowherd and iHeartRadio. He will also be part of Amazon’s Thursday Night Football coverage, a deal previously announced.
But being frank, I can’t remember Sherman saying anything all that interesting in the past couple of years. And maybe that will change now that his playing career is at the very least winding down, though he has not retired. Perhaps he’ll be willing to say what he really thinks about quarterback Russell Wilson, his former teammate in Seattle. But for the past couple of years, Sherman hasn’t said much to warrant the kind of attention he used to actively court.
I bring this up not as a criticism of Sherman, but more as a commentary on the difficulty of building a sustainable media career. It’s as hard for former players as it is for the lay people in the profession. There’s a degree of consistency the job demands, reliability, and being outspoken and controversial is absolutely great but it’s a dicey proposition to base an entire career upon that schtick because there might come a time when you are no longer capable of being considered so edgy.
I’m not saying that happened with Sherman, but he’s become decidedly less interesting over. That might not be a bad thing for him personally, but I do wonder what it means for his media presence and that was something I used to have no doubt about.
I covered Sherman for the breadth of his career in Seattle, first as a newspaper reporter at The Seattle Times and later as a radio host in town. I have never encountered a player who is better than Sherman at understanding and then explaining the defensive concepts and schemes that his team uses nor have I met someone who thrives on conflict quite the way he does whether it’s with opposing players, coaches or even my co-host whose career Sherman said he could ruin. For the longest time, I believed this combination would make Sherman millions in media if he decided he wanted to do that.
And he probably has made millions already, but Sherman has already done a weekly column with Sports Illustrated as well as a podcast with Cris Collinsworth and none of that has cut through the way I thought it would. I’m not exactly sure why.
He is an incredibly engaging personality. He has a great sense of humor. As a veteran, he was incredibly generous with insights and advice to younger teammates especially in the defensive secondary.
But Sherman’s opinions on other players are not as sharp as early on in his career when he was changing his Twitter handle to Optimus Prime before a game against Detroit, or saying Steve Smith was a “little guy” after facing Carolina. Maybe he doesn’t want to come off as a hater. Perhaps those opinions were a matter of football gamesmanship as opposed to a sneak peek of what was to come as a broadcaster.
There’s also another possibility: players and former players must do more than criticize media coverage to succeed in media. A lot more. That’s not to say you shouldn’t criticize media coverage, but it can’t be your only pitch. In fact, it shouldn’t be your most frequent pitch.
This made me think back to a conversation with Demetri Ravanos earlier this month on his podcast, Media Noise. We were talking about Draymond Green and his “New Media” faction of which I am a huge fan. Green is experiencing the kind of success and acclaim I expected for Sherman. And maybe that will happen for Sherman as he segues out of his playing career or perhaps – like Sherman – Green will find it hard to keep the attention of the audience as his playing career descends from the peak he’s currently on.
It seems that every time we encounter an honest and charismatic athlete who’s willing to say interesting things in public, we assume that player is going to be the next media star. It happened with Patrick Beverly earlier this year, and he didn’t have to do much more than very publicly grind his ax against Chris Paul.
There’s more to a media career than just grabbing the audience’s attention, though. You have to hold onto it day after day, year after year, and this comes with a number of challenges from coming up with new angles or analysis or ignoring the blowback from contemporary players who bristle at your criticism.
I think adding Sherman’s podcast is a great bet by The Volume. He fits with what they’re doing, and Cowherd is one of the very best at setting up the people he works with for success. As far as media bets go, this is a great one. I’m just not as sure it will pan out as I was back when Sherman was at the peak of his career. That uncertainty isn’t a criticism of Sherman so much as a commentary on the degree of difficulty in the industry even for someone as interesting as Sherman.
Danny O’Neil is a sports media columnist for BSM. He has previously hosted morning and afternoon drive for 710 ESPN Seattle, and served as a reporter for the Seattle Times. He can be reached on Twitter @DannyOneil or by email at Danny@DannyOneil.com.
