z*****a
发帖数: 3809 | 1 蛇人写的 MMQB 文章
http://mmqb.si.com/2013/09/18/richard-sherman-san-francisco-49e
We Compete Against Ourselves
September 18, 2013 by Richard Sherman
Sherman’s fourth-quarter interception led to a field goal that put the
Seahawks up 22–3 on the way to a definitive 29–3 win over the division-
rival Niners. (Robert Beck/Sports Illustrated) -
I’m no golfer.
But I do own a set of clubs. I’m taking lessons, and I’ve hacked away on
five or six occasions with my teammate Brandon Browner. On Tuesday, after we
beat the 49ers 29-3, Brandon and I planned to play few holes at our local
public course in Renton, but Brandon couldn’t make it, so I went alone. I’
ve played football, basketball and baseball, but there’s something special
about golf. Maybe it’s the technical nature of the game, how controlled you
have to be, and how you can never be perfect. I am reminded, this week, of
why golf is so much like playing pro football.
Now, we’ve just beaten the 49ers—a team that our doubters believed to be
the class of the NFL until Sunday. This week we’ll see the 0-2 Jaguars, a
heavy underdog in the betting world who could be down to their backup
quarterback for the second week in a row. You can already imagine the
questions we’ll face in the locker room this week, and the answers we’ll
recite.
How do you avoid a letdown?
“You take every game one at a time.”
Well I have the page now, so let’s go deeper. The real trick to avoid
hangovers after big wins in football is the same mentality that applies to
golf, my new hobby, and track and field, my old love. In the minds of the
men in our locker room on the day of the loudest sporting event in NFL
history, we didn’t play the 49ers, or Jim Harbaugh, or Colin Kaepernick, or
Anquan Boldin. We were playing the Seattle Seahawks. When you play at a
high level, a game has nothing to do with the opponent; it has everything to
do with us. That’s what makes us different, and that’s what makes playing
in the NFL special.
I can still remember my worst event in track at Stanford before I left the
sport as a sophomore: the 110-meter hurdles. It was a difficult transition,
going from the fluidity of football movements to the repetitions of the
hurdles. But I do remember my personal best time—14.4 seconds. I don’t
remember where I was, or who I was running against, but I’ll never forget
the time.
The mindset must be the same, whether you’re covering Anquan Boldin or a
Jaguars rookie. -
That’s the way we look at football games. We remember two things: the final
score, and whether we met our defensive goals. No matter who we play, we
want to accomplish certain things in the red zone, certain things on third
down and achieve a certain number of turnovers. It doesn’t matter if I’m
playing against Boldin, Cecil Shorts or Andre Johnson—when I go up there, I
want to dominate whoever is in front of me. There are certain standards we
have on our defense that must be upheld.
Admittedly, I didn’t always feel that way about football. In college, you
get up for the big games—Oregon, USC, Notre Dame. It’s a rivalry mentality
. All over campus, everyone is more involved in those games, and the
environment can dictate your mood. Even when I entered the league, when I
was only playing special teams for the Seahawks as a rookie in 2011, I wasn
’t necessarily jacked for every game. But I heard the message every day,
and when I became a starter I understood the mentality of coach Pete Carroll
and his staff: Every one of us is competing against ourselves. Get better
at something, whether it’s a small thing or a huge thing. Nobody’s ever
had a perfect day, but you’re trying to get there.
Of course, when the games come you have to study film and prepare for the
tendencies of the opposition. I dived into Jags film this week just as hard
as I did 49ers tape a week ago. You want to know who’s having big games,
and you want to keep that guy from having a big game. Additionally, you have
to be aware of the men around you—their strengths and weaknesses and how
we can help one another. But you can’t overthink the guy across from you or
the guy next to you. Great players on great teams are able to trust in the
game plan the coaches come up with and trust in their teammates to do their
jobs. Whether its stopping one guy or another, we trust in that game plan
and we focus on executing it perfectly.
You might ask, how can you hold a Boldin in the same regard as a less-
experienced receiver on another roster? How does a rookie like Denard
Robinson inspire the same effort and tenacity as a Calvin Johnson? It’s
because I owe Denard and every other NFL receiver that same level of respect
, simply for the fact that he’s an NFL player. This is the mountaintop of
our sport, and if you ever disrespect that, it will be a long day for you.
The first time I ever played golf, I had no idea what I was doing. I knew
enough to not look stupid. With borrowed clubs at a course in Canada in June
I took a few embarrassing swings that ended in the woods or the heavy stuff
. I was all over the map. Then, out of nowhere—CRACK. I connected with a
driver and sent one 225 yards straight down the fairway on a par 4. For
months I’ve been trying to duplicate that feeling. At that point it didn’t
matter what the rest of my group had done—I was no longer playing against
anyone but myself.
That’s how you never overlook anybody. | z*****a
发帖数: 3809 | 2 Other articles written by Sherman for MMQB:
http://mmqb.si.com/author/shermmmqb/ | z*****a
发帖数: 3809 | 3 http://mmqb.si.com/2013/07/18/richard-sherman-introduction/
Where I’m Coming From
I’m a fifth-round pick from Compton. That drives me every day
July 18, 2013 by Richard Sherman
My name is Richard Sherman. I’m a 25-year-old cornerback for the Seattle
Seahawks. You might know me for my mouth, but I hope you get to know me this
season in The MMQB for two other things: being a great football player, and
being an enlightened person.
I’ve agreed to write a regular column for this new website, and I’m
excited about getting a player’s view of the game out in the media.
Hopefully it will give you an unfiltered look into my life, my team and the
lives of all NFL players.
The easiest way to start my first column would be to pick a new fight with
someone. You might remember me for challenging Tom Brady after we beat the
Patriots last fall, getting in his face after I felt he disrespected us. Or
for the Twitter skirmish I got into with Darrelle Revis earlier this year,
where I used facts to point out why I’m on his level as a player. Or when I
demolished Skip Bayless on ESPN’s First Take. But before I throw out the
first opinion—and I have quite a few of those—I want to tell you a few
things about myself: where I’m from, who raised me, how I got to be where I
am today. Then maybe you’ll understand why I’m so opinionated.
I was raised in a tough part of L.A. by two great parents, my mother,
Beverly, and father, Kevin. I lived in Watts until I was about 14, then
moved to Compton. My mom works with mentally disabled kids for the County of
Los Angeles. My dad drives a trash truck.
He still leaves the house at 4 in the morning to go out on his route. So I
was raised understanding the value of hard work. My parents preached
academics above all else. It got to the point where I’d bring home a B in
middle school, even in a tough class, and get stern looks, like, That is not
acceptable. But our parents always kept us involved in sports, kept us busy
. In such a bad neighborhood, they always wanted us doing something
constructive.
I knew very early—back when I was around 7—that I wanted to be a football
player. I loved the game, plus one day I saw Deion Sanders get this crazy
contract, seven years for $35 million. I saw that, and I saw his house on TV
, and I thought, Wow, he got that much to just play the same game I’m
playing for free in Pop Warner? That’s the life for me. Despite his riches,
I already had something in common with Deion back then: I wasn’t the
bravest guy out on the football field.
It wasn’t until my dad coached my team, when I was 11, that I learned you
had to be tough to be a great football player. He put me up against a bigger
kid in a tackling drill and told me, “Run him over.” All I could think of
was, I don’t want to do this, but I did it. I closed my eyes, ran into the
guy and did OK—or so I thought.
“Do it again!” my father shouted.
I braced up again. And the guy ran through me, again. That one hurt.
“Do it again!”
This time he ran through me ever harder. My dad came over to me, picked me
up off the ground and … threw me down.
“Do it right! Be a FOOTBALL player! Do it again!”
On my fourth try I ran through that kid’s face. Knocked him down. When you
’re young you have so many fears. But since that day I’ve never been
afraid of anything on a football field.
In high school I played both ways—receiver and cornerback—and got
recruited by lots of big schools. But I also realized that by doing well in
school, I’d always be able to control my fate. Knowledge is power, and I
wanted as much power over my life as possible.
There were times when my favorite subject was math. Other times it was
English. I remember reading The Iliad and loving it. You wouldn’t think a
football player would be into Greek poetry about the Trojan War, but my
parents gave me the greatest piece of knowledge when I was young: You can
learn a lot if you’re willing to go outside your comfort zone.
USC really wanted me as a corner, but I wanted to be the next great wideout.
All kids want to touch the ball, right? Being able to play receiver is one
of the things that pointed me to Stanford, but the school’s academic
culture and prestige were also alluring. I graduated with a degree in
communications, and I hope to be a TV analyst when I stop playing because I
love the games within a game that make football so great to watch on Sundays.
I’m glad to be in Seattle, but I still have a problem with what happened to
me at the draft in 2011. I guess teams thought I was raw as a corner? I don
’t know. But I’m a big corner (6-3, 195 pounds) who had a good Orange Bowl
and good Senior Bowl, and I thought I’d go in the second or third round. I
was really angry that I fell to the fifth. So many teams doubted me, and
that disrespect motivates me to this day. It’ll drive me for as a long as I
play. Me, the 154th pick? Made no sense then—and it still doesn’t.
Disrespect. That’s also what I felt from Tom Brady when the Patriots came
to Seattle last season. They were beating us in the second half, and I think
it was during a TV timeout when one of our safeties, Earl Thomas, walked
over to Tom. Earl had already intercepted him and said something like, “I
got one pick, and I should have had two more!” And Brady responded with
something like, “Who are you? Come talk to me after we win.” He was
talking down to us, like we were a bunch of nobodies just there witnessing
his greatness.
I know there are people out there—fans and other players—who say, “Just
shut up and play.” But that’s not me. Never has been, never will be. I can
’t make everyone out there happy.
So after we won, 24–23, I went up to Tom, and he wouldn’t talk to me. It
was just a spur-of-the-moment thing when I asked him, “You mad, bro? You
mad, bro?”
I play the game the right way. I play hard. I don’t take cheap shots. I
never try to hurt anybody. And I respect people who respect me. It’s pretty
simple. But if you don’t respect me, or if you doubt my ability, I’m not
just going to sit there and swallow it. I’ll come at you. I know there are
people out there—fans and other players—who say, “Just shut up and play.
” But that’s not me. Never has been, never will be. I can’t make everyone
out there happy.
Now, about my game: I think I’m the best cornerback in football. The tape
shows it. My numbers put an exclamation point on it. Over the past two
seasons, only one cornerback in the NFL has at least 10 interceptions (I
have 12) and at least 32 passes defensed (I have 41). I’m not sure what
else I can do to prove I’m the top corner in the game, but once you’re
branded as a fifth-round pick, that sticks. Some people will never admit
that a fifth-rounder is the best at his position.
But I’m going to keep proving it, just like my team. There aren’t many out
there who really believe in me, or in the Seahawks, yet. But just watch. It
’s going to be our year. | k***r
发帖数: 13724 | 4 “But just watch. It ’s going to be our year.”
目测得好多歪贴来冲冲喜啊，怎么也得100+的包子贴我觉得，海鹰饭自觉吧。
this
and
【在 z*****a 的大作中提到】
: http://mmqb.si.com/2013/07/18/richard-sherman-introduction/
: Where I’m Coming From
: I’m a fifth-round pick from Compton. That drives me every day
: July 18, 2013 by Richard Sherman
: My name is Richard Sherman. I’m a 25-year-old cornerback for the Seattle
: Seahawks. You might know me for my mouth, but I hope you get to know me this
: season in The MMQB for two other things: being a great football player, and
: being an enlightened person.
: I’ve agreed to write a regular column for this new website, and I’m
: excited about getting a player’s view of the game out in the media.
| a****1
发帖数: 654 | | g******s
发帖数: 3647 | 6 great article...回家让娃也读读。
this
and
【在 z*****a 的大作中提到】
: http://mmqb.si.com/2013/07/18/richard-sherman-introduction/
: Where I’m Coming From
: I’m a fifth-round pick from Compton. That drives me every day
: July 18, 2013 by Richard Sherman
: My name is Richard Sherman. I’m a 25-year-old cornerback for the Seattle
: Seahawks. You might know me for my mouth, but I hope you get to know me this
: season in The MMQB for two other things: being a great football player, and
: being an enlightened person.
: I’ve agreed to write a regular column for this new website, and I’m
: excited about getting a player’s view of the game out in the media.
|
|
