This jaw-jacking goes on all the time between the opposition, especially between DBs vs. Receivers. I see that many people don't seem to know what or that it does go on. The smack talk motivates the players to play at a high level - an edge. If you want to win, being nice on the football field doesn't cut it. In other words, it's a winning 'tude, in Sherman's mind and many other players. What people saw was an unvarnished look at the minds of what players are thinking while they are on the playing, field, especially in the NFL.
Sherman is only guilty of expressing his emotions and thoughts only moments before winning a trip to the Super Bowl and defeating his opposition in battle.
From the article - 6. In other words, he might have just been auditioning for the WWE
I thought the same and I was amused LoL, and I understood the man's mindset. The reporterette seemed to be taken back by it, and was probably not the best person to do that interview moments after the heat on the plays.
If smack talk is the only thing that motivates an athlete, he shouldn't be in the NFL. There are other things that should motivate a professional athlete and hopefully some of them motivate Sherman.
I've spent my entire professional life around athletes in a wide variety of sports and at a wide variety of levels, and have met some of the players from the great Vikings teams of the 60s and 70s. They had quiet confidence, which came from their Hall of Fame coach, Bud Grant. It seems to me that a little quiet confidence would help calm things down quite a bit.
That said, an interview in the heat of the moment should have been expected to generate the heat that it did. As the saying goes, don't ask a question if you're afraid to learn the answer.
“This jaw-jacking goes on all the time between the opposition, especially between DBs vs. Receivers.”
Mike Golic, of ESPN’s “Mike & Mike”, used to say that the amount of jawing/taunting that was done was proportional to how far one lined up from the ball before the snap. The further away, the mouthier the players tended to be with WR’s & DB’s leading the way.
As for interior lineman, Golic said he was to busy, “trying to get air” between snaps to have much to say to the guy lining up over him.