Richard Sherman has become the next big thing in the NFL
both on the field and off.
Prior to his post-game rant, I noticed Richard Sherman in a
couple of different commercials. It seems as if his popularity has risen in the
minds of companies as well as fans. Sherman is the new athlete in the new
episode of the Beats commercial.
For those of you who have not yet seen the new commercial it
starts off with Sherman in the locker room surrounded by reporters asking him
questions about his rough upbringing and questionable decisions. Sherman
answers each question until they cut a little too deep to where he puts the
beats headphones on and tunes everyone away.
Personally, I love what Beats is doing as a whole with these
commercials, as Kevin Rossi talked about in a previous post highlighting Beats and Kaepernick, but specifically this one. Sherman has gotten a lot of criticism
ever since he entered the NFL and to be quite honest ever since he chose to go
to Stanford out of Compton.
With this being the case, it gave Beats the easiest and best
fit to their slogan “Hear What You Want” being as this is something Richard has
been doing his whole life on his way to where he is today.
The commercial also touches on the racism factor that comes
along with being a black athlete even in this day in age. At one point during
the commercial, a white reporter leans over and whispers, “He thinks he’s so
fucking untouchable” to another reporter. It seems as if Richard notices it but
does not acknowledge it until the question of whether he is a thug or not
arises.
I also noticed Richard in the new Nike Flyknit Commercial,
which also features Allyson Felix, Mo Farah, Ashton Eaton, and Kobe Bryant. In
this commercial, it shows each athlete training to get better while wearing
Nike’s new Flyknit shoes. Once again, another big step for Richard in publicity
and popularity wise. Being on a commercial with the likes of Kobe and others
will help bring in new fans that had not previously been a fan of Richards.
All in all, this has been a story in the making ever since
Richard started to really build his ego after the game against Tom Brady and
the Patriots a year or two ago. Ever since then, Richard has either made
appearances in the news whether it be calling out receivers, cornerbacks,
quarterbacks and even Skip Bayless. This was all one thing but it wasn’t until
he backed up all this talk with his play last year, but more specifically, this
year with arguably defensive player of the year type play that it all started
to make sense.
Then came the conference championship game this Sunday. For
those of you who didn’t see the game, Sherman was only targeted twice the whole
game. The first resulted in a questionable holding call against Sherman, while
the second was the winning play for the Seattle Seahawks. Kaepernick targeted
Crabtree deep for a game winning touchdown, but Sherman had position and
managed to hit the ball over to Malcolm Smith for the game sealing
interception. After the play, Sherman went over to shake Crabtree’s hand to
where Crabtree mugged his face and Sherman pushed back. Sherman then threw up a
choking gesture to Kaepernick. If you thought all that was bad, you were in for
a treat when Erin Andrews conducted a post game interview with Richard. Richard
yelled “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 going to get. Don’t you ever talk
about me.”
So first of all, I don’t blame Richard for his post game
rant. He was in the heat of the moment with someone who he clearly did not
like, which he mentioned went all the way back to something that occurred at an
offseason camp, and did not get a chance to turn his emotion "switch" off before
the interview. I also loved this because it gave Sherman a villain type look.
Sherman has always been asking for respect and has never truly received it
until this year. With that being said, Sherman now is a perfect option for
companies to target with ads and commercials.
Although many may start to hate this man. They should be ready to see a lot more of him!
---
Lindrit Shkodra is originally from Diber, Macedonia but lives in Maple Shade, NJ. He is a sophomore in the Sports Management program and is currently the Treasurer of the Drexel Sport Management Student Union. He currently works for KCB Sports Marketing. In the past, he has work experience with Ron Jaworski's Celebrity Golf Challenge and Ridgewells Catering at the 2013 U.S. Open. Follow Lindrit on Twitter @LindritShkodra.
No comments:
Post a Comment