When the adrenalin does the talking

It was the post game rant heard ’round the world.

Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, he’s the defender who beat out receiver Michael Crabtree and saved the game for Seattle, is talking to Fox reporter Erin Andrews and he goes off.

And instantly the Twitterverse had pegged him as Seattle’s Bad Boy.

And bad boy he may be on the field, but he is also a Stanford graduate, and in fact, in the post game interview most people did not hear – he translated himself.

For example, when he said this to Erin, “Well I’m the best corner in the game. And when you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree that’s the result you’re going to get.”

What he meant was, “I was making sure everybody knew that Crabtree was a mediocre receiver. Mediocre.”

Not taking anything back, but it comes off a little differently when you remove the adrenalin.

And when he said this, “Don’t you open your mouth about the best. Or I’m gonna shut it for you real quick. L.O.B.”

What he meant to say about Mr. Crabtree was, “There’s been a lot of talk from him, running his mouth during the offseason and personal conversations. So I appreciate that he knows that now.”

So it’s a reminder that in football, as in life, adrenalin changes you.

A little like politics in fact it was exactly ten years ago Sunday that an even more famous adrenalin-driven rant went viral.

It was then-presidential candidate Howard Dean, “And we’re going to South Dakota! And Oregon! And Michigan! And then we’re going to Washington, D.C. to take back the White House! Ah!”

But unlike Howard Dean, Richard Sherman’s career doesn’t depend on being liked. It depends on being feared.

And he knows it. You know, come to think of it, maybe it wasn’t adrenaline. Maybe it was on purpose.