In a recent conversation with Chris Biderman, Sherman talked about what he sees with Nick Bosa’s past social media activity.
One of the more underlying questions on Nick Bosa’s drafting to the San Francisco 49ers isn’t if it can fix the team’s longstanding pass-rush issues, but how the team will accept him. Bosa has been in the news for his social media activity, including liking Instagram posts with racist/homophobic hashtags while a teenager, and his political affiliations.
Richard Sherman cares more on what Bosa does on the field than off.
The Sacramento Bee’s Chris Biderman spoke to Sherman on Monday about the elephant in the room and Sherman didn’t hold anything back.
“One thing about football is that nobody really cares what you say if you can play,” Sherman said, according to Biderman. “At the end of the day, I think a guy that has played with African Americans his whole life, not saying he can’t be racist, but they know how to maneuver around African Americans.”
If anyone is going to have a voice on this, it’s Sherman. While he’s been less vocal in recent years on more trivial matters, things like racial discrimination remain at full volume—increased, even. He supported Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling protest against police brutality and spoke of possible legal action if Eric Reid were not to be signed in the 2018 season. Reid would get signed by the Carolina Panthers during that same season. Being an executive member of the NFLPA executive committee, Sherman would have a voice on this. After all, Bosa had a deleted tweet where he called Kaepernick “a clown” for his protests.
“It’s not like something where guys are like, ‘Hey man, what about what you said?’ No. No. If he can play, he can play. If he can’t play, he won’t be here,” Sherman said, according to Biderman “But at the end of the day, that’s all that matters in football. Is he getting sacks on Sunday? Is he helping our team? Is he being a good teammate? Those are things that matter.
“Now, if he’s a bad teammate, that’s something we’ll address.”
Maybe the biggest story here is Sherman admitting that he was hobbled by injury in 2018. In January, Sherman had surgery to remove sutures put in place to fix his torn Achilles’ that he suffered back in 2017. After missing a pair of games last year, Sherman expects to be more effective in year 2 with the 49ers.
“I’m much healthier. I was kind of out there on one leg,” he said.
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