Richard Sherman opens up about relationship with Russell Wilson: ‘It’s fantastic’

Despite making the playoffs in each of the last five years, reaching the Super Bowl twice and fielding one of the best teams in the NFL, the Seattle Seahawks have come under some scrutiny this offseason. The main source of that controversy came from a story suggesting there’s a feud between the offense and defense, namely between the team’s best defensive players and Russell Wilson.

Richard Sherman was the focal point of that criticism as a result of his reported outburst in practice where he told Wilson “You [expletive] suck.” That would seem to throw a wrench into any sort of relationship the two had, but that’s not the case. Sherman debunked any notion that he and Wilson don’t get along, saying their relationship is great.

"It's fantastic," Sherman said after practice Wednesday. "We're teammates. It's like a family. It's like everyone else in a family. We fight for one another, just like I'm fighting for the other 52 guys out there; I'm fighting for him, and he's fighting for us. We have a great appreciation for how tough our quarterback is and what he has played through. Last year, he played through a number of injuries, and he's not doing that just because, 'Ah man, I've got to go out there and it's a job.' But he's doing that for the guys next to him, and we appreciate that, and we think he is a great quarterback."

 

“You could literally say that about any team, about any quarterback,” Sherman said. “The Patriots probably think Tom Brady gets treated better than everybody else. … You could make this a legitimate story, this exact same story, about any of the teams that were in the playoffs last year, and even a couple that weren’t in the playoffs. Any of the competitive teams that have a great offense and great defense.”

Sherman is an outspoken player who’s never been afraid to express his opinion, and a couple times last year, that got him into a bit of trouble. He had a sideline outburst, yelled at coaches for their play calling and even threatened to end a reporter’s career.

It wasn’t a good look for the All-Pro cornerback, and even he admits he may have gone too far on a few occasions.

“At times it might have gotten kind of overblown, I might have gone over the top,” he said. “But [Carroll] understood where it was coming from, and so did my teammates. So like I said before, it's just the competitiveness – it's just a competitive team.”