It speaks volumes that the media have spent more time replaying and analyzing Richard Sherman’s postgame rant about being the best cornerback in the NFL than they have replaying and analyzing the play he made that sealed the Seattle Seahawks’ win over the San Francisco 49ers, 23 to 17, in Sunday’s NFC Championship game.
For this is just another example of the media becoming little more than a carnival circus. And, even in this context, they see more value in featuring the freaks and clowns over the magicians and acrobats.
He might well be the best cornerback in the NFL, but chances are that you never heard of the Seahawks’ Sherman until the media made a barking fool of him on Sunday. Unfortunately, the takeaway (especially for young Black boys) is that you have a far better shot at fame in America today by acting like an obnoxious jerk than by displaying real talent. And amoral corporate sponsors will only reinforce this socially demeaning value now by rewarding him with lucrative endorsement deals.
Which is why the story here is not Sherman’s postgame rant, as the media would have you believe. Rather, it’s the media (and advertisers) choosing to elevate his rant over the game itself.
Real Football fans will tell you that the most exciting day of the NFL season is Conference Championship Sunday, not Super Bowl Sunday – as fair-weather fans might say.
(“Historic NFL Championship Sunday,” The iPINIONS Journal, January 22, 2007)
Yet, you could be forgiven for having no clue that bona-fide superstars Peyton Manning of the Denver Broncos and Tom Brady of the New England Patriots led their teams in a thrilling battle for the AFC Championship on Sunday as well. For the record, Peyton’s Broncos won 26 to 16, and will be meeting the really talented Russell Wilson’s (i.e., not the loudmouth Sherman’s) Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII at the New Jersey Meadowlands on February 2.
Incidentally, I’m sure this media focus on Shearman is not fostering much esprit de corps among his teammates. Nonetheless, the obsessive, herd-like nature of the media is such that (the all too obliging) Sherman will still be the focus of their coverage next Tuesday during the NFL’s traditional “media day”- when all players who made it to the Super Bowl usually get to enjoy their 15 minutes of fame. That is, of course, unless another player redirects the media’s Pavlovian attention by behaving like an even bigger obnoxious jerk.
That said, it just so happens that Sherman displayed real intelligence yesterday when he said the following about being called a thug for his postgame rant:
The only reason it bothers me is because it seems like it’s the accepted way of calling somebody the N-word nowadays.
(Huffington Post, January 22, 2014)
That, my friends, is a profound, precise, and provocative observation. What’s more, it does far more to honor Sherman’s Stanford University education than his postgame rant about being an alpha dog. But don’t expect the media to devote too much attention to it.
Because, alas, when it comes to generating media interest these days, the Black intellectual might as well be an invisible man compared to a Black alpha dog (aka thug, aka nigger). This sad fact is what is most noteworthy about this grossly overblown story.
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Championship Sunday…
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