Richard Sherman backs Tom Brady and Patriots despite cheating allegations
Richard Sherman is at times a critic of the NFL. While he and Tom Brady are opponents on the football field, they’ve ended up in the same camp off it — opposing the league.
Sherman told ESPN.com on Thursday he wants players to get a fair trial when punished, and was pleased to see Brady’s suspension vacated. He said that in NFL investigations, “it’s guilty until proven innocent sometimes.’’
With the Patriots’ cheating allegations swirling from ESPN’s Outside the Lines and Sports Illustrated reports, Sherman backed Brady and the Patriots, saying on-field play was far more determinant than any off-field rule-breaking.
“Everybody does their things a little differently, but at the end of the day, it’s handled between the lines,’’ Sherman said. “And if they man up and they beat you straight up, they beat you straight up. You can say they knew your plays or they watched this or they watched that, but a lot of times if you watch film good enough, you find good indicators. You find things. So if you’re studying the game the right way, you go out there understanding what plays are coming, and you know when the plays are coming. But can you execute? Can 11 guys stop the other 11 from executing their play?
“And at the end of the day, that’s what it’s about. You can say you stole scripts or whatever it is, but they still have to win the game. They still have to intercept the ball. They still have to execute. Eleven guys have to execute at the same time. And that’s what they did, so give them credit. If there’s hanky-panky going on, they’ve gotten away with it. “Like they say, if you didn’t get caught, then it wasn’t cheating.’’
It’s not the first time Sherman put the NFL on blast during the Deflategate saga. In an interview with USA Today, he pointed out a double standard in the NFL where teams were getting off easy while players lost more money in fines and salary.
“That should bring up some red flags,’’ he told USA Today in August. “But nobody’s talking about that.’’
Read the entire interview with ESPN here.
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