Was Richard Sherman out of line?

Imagine a young black man, growing up in Compton, graduates with straight-As, gets a scholarship to play football at Stanford.  At Stanford he faces adversity on the football team but sticks it out and switches position, then graduates and gets drafted in the 5th round, with 23 other cornerbacks ahead of him.

Now, tally up his stats since he's entered the NFL (2011) and notice that he's got more interceptions than anyone else in the NFL.

That's Richard Sherman, and dude's got a right to be as loud as he wants to be.  He's earned his credentials to brashly critique the people he faces.  He's not telling some stranger that he thinks they're an idiot or a crappy person, though that's ironically exactly what people are doing to him on Twitter and elsewhere.

Are you really going to tell me, in this day and age of subversive liars who routinely attack people with their  passive-aggressive actions, better?  Dude put up, so that he doesn't have to shut up.

Oh, and this is why he had a beef with Crabtree:

"Sherman has been upset with Crabtree since last summer. Both attended Arizona star receiver Larry Fitzgerald’s charity event. While there, Sherman went to shake Crabtree’s hand, and Crabtree tried to start a fight, according to Sherman’s older brother, Branton. 

“I’m going to make a play and embarrass him,” Richard Sherman vowed that day. 

Sherman does plenty of planning, and his brother is often around to hear about what’s in store. Sherman’s incredible play at the end of the game? He had done something similar last month against the New York Giants, tipping a pass that safety Earl Thomas intercepted to ensure a shutout victory. 

“I did that on purpose, bro,” Richard said afterward. 

“Nah, that was luck,” Branton replied. 

“OK, I’ll do it again some time,” Richard said."

He followed through.

In any case, if you think Erin Andrews is upset at what Richard Sherman said and did, don't worry; she's not upset at all:

“I don’t want this to look like I was upset with him, I was frightened, I felt threatened, we all like Richard Sherman a lot at Fox,” Andrews told For The Win. “At that moment I saw how crazy it was going to blow up, and I wanted to make sure people knew it wasn’t a situation where I’m a victim and he acted like an idiot." 

“I walked in front of an interview that was going on because I knew we were coming on live,” she said. “He looked up, realized it was me and he gave me this giant bear hug because he was so excited … And he hugged me so hard I hit my chin on his pads. It was a raw, passionate, candid moment. That’s how pumped he was.”

Did you get that?  Sherman gave Andrews a big hug.

Sherman is a good guy; brash and loud, but a good guy.  And a great player.  He won't always be a great player -- everyone eventually falls -- but at this moment, he damn well is one of the best defensive backs in the NFL, if not the best.