Daily News Joe Camporeale/USA Today Sports Richard Sherman takes his shots at the Patriots and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell as the Seahawks arrive in Phoenix. PHOENIX — Richard Sherman’s left elbow may still be hurting, but his mouth is off and running at the Super Bowl. Sherman stole the show Sunday — the Patriots arrive Monday — at what’s going to be a wild week dominated by DeflateGate, the unsolved mystery of how 11 unfortunate footballs were deprived of air. When I asked him shortly after the Seahawks’ arrival if he thought about the perception of the Patriots always coming close to crossing the cheating line, he answered not by ripping Bill Belichick, whom he’s never met, or Tom Brady, whom he taunted after the Seahawks beat the Patriots two years ago, but Sherman is a throwback: Great player, smart person, not afraid to say what he thinks, and he was yapping at 100% efficiency. “I think the perception is the reality,” he said of the Pats’ image of pushing the envelope. “It is what it is. Their resume speaks for itself. The past is what the past is. Their present is what their present is.” Then he asked himself a question. addResponsivePlayer(’13hcqa5domia01pox2ed2mru0z’, ‘C6D065C213A84966E0440021281A8A86′, ‘h73ojbfbvce2178tts4dz4g2d’, ‘perf13hcqa5domia01pox2ed2mru0z-h73ojbfbvce2178tts4dz4g2d’, ‘eplayer41′, {age:1402604427000}); But now that there’s been so much talk about Goodell going soft on Kraft, it will probably trigger the reverse reaction. In fact, conspiracy theories are now being offered that the Colts informed the NFL before the championship game last week about their suspicions that the Patriots used deflated footballs when they played in Indianapolis in November, and the league decided before the title game it was going to nail New England if it could. Does that theory have credibility? It’s hard to believe the NFL planned this all out knowing another scandal involving the Patriots would overshadow the Super Bowl. After a season dominated by the Abbott and Costello investigation of Rice, it makes little sense that the NFL would risk another high-profile controversy just when the Rice stuff was quieting down. But until the NFL is able to uncover how those footballs were two PSIs under the minimum, this is not going away. Not today. Not this week, for sure. One year ago, Sherman was perceived as the Super Bowl villain after his postgame television rant following the NFC Championship Game. Now there’s no doubt Belichick, potentially a two-time cheater, and the Patriots are the villains. “I guess it is ironic that I was the villain last year, seeing as I didn’t break any rules or do anything despicable,” Sherman said. “I just played the game. To be painted a villain, you have to do something evil, something heinous. I don’t know if I fit that description. I learned a lot from that experience.” newsnyork/daily-news-196/
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 06:02:45 +0000