After release, Sherman defects to 49ers
SANTA CLARA — One soundbite might be all it takes for Richard Sherman to win over any San Francisco 49ers fans he offended in his past Seattle Seahawks life.
Sherman confirmed a driving factor in signing with the 49ers — aside from Jimmy Garoppolo’s “inspiring” presence, coach Kyle Shanahan’s “innovative” mind and a familiar defensive scheme — is to seek vengeance on the Seahawks.
“I’m going to try my best to ruin their day,” Sherman said Monday. “I want a chance to show what I can do.”
While a poor connection with background noise garbled his media conference call, Sherman voiced no frustration. Instead he offered explanatory and pensive answers, from extolling the virtues of Garoppolo to meaning no disrespect for a Thanksgiving 2014 turkey dinner on the 50-yard line after humiliating the host 49ers.
“(NBC producers) were like, ‘Eat the turkey,’” Sherman recalled. “You’re excited after the game. You’re winning. We weren’t thinking anything else. Honestly we were just enjoying the moment. We played pretty well that game.
“I honestly didn’t think it was disrespectful. But people can take it any way they want to.”
His decibels may never roar as high as after he ruined the 2013 49ers’ Super Bowl hopes in Seattle. And he’s more articulate and poignant than people realize, or perhaps more than 49ers fans were willing to accept the past seven years.
So when Sherman speaks, people listen, and that is something the 49ers will have to adjust to in a locker
room that grew admirably tight amid last season’s adversity (0-9 start) and eventual triumph (5-0 finish).
Garoppolo fueled that closing act, and with him locked in last month on a NFL-record contract, his presence helped lure Sherman.
“That had a huge part. The way he played down the stretch was inspiring, it was incredible,” Sherman said. “Sometimes quarterbacks can get hot and the next year fall off the face of the Earth and you do not hear from them again.
“What I saw from him was poise, I saw leadership, I saw the respect from his teammates, and I saw a command of the offense, and he’d only been there a few weeks.”
Sherman saw more to the 49ers than Garoppolo. He’s familiar with the defensive scheme and the coordinator running it, Robert Saleh, a former Seahawks assistant who
joined Sherman, Sherman’s fiancee Ashley and coach Kyle Shanahan at Friday night’s recruitment dinner in Los Gatos.
As much as he raved about Shanahan’s coaching credentials and a familiarity general manager John Lynch (fellow Stanford graduate), Sherman wanted to keep his family on the West Coast, and he did not ignore his desire to take on the Seahawks twice a year.
“It definitely had a part of it,” Sherman said. “I enjoyed the city of Seattle and the fans there. I have love and appreciation for the years I spent there.”
Released Friday with a failed physical designation, Sherman met only with the 49ers, and after hammering out his own deal over a fivehour session with contract czar Paraag Marathe, Sherman gave the Seahawks a chance to match it, and he also gauged the interest of the Raiders and Detroit Lions.
Sherman said of his call to Seahawks general manager John Schneider: “They said they wouldn’t be able to match that and he thought it was a solid deal. He thought there was some things I could do with roster bonuses. But I felt comfortable with being able to achieve that.”
Sherman agreed to the incentive-laden deal on Saturday and signed that contract Sunday. It gives him only a $3 million signing bonus, but another $2 million if he’s medically cleared come training camp as well as a $2 million base salary for 2018. Incentives and bonuses could push the deal to $39 million, but only if he reverts to All-Pro form.
“It’s a little odd to put on a different jersey in general,” Sherman began. “It will take some getting used to for me. I spent a lot of time wearing a red (Stanford) jersey in the Bay, so I’m sure I’ll figure it out.”
No one knows for sure how healthy Sherman can come back from last November’s right Achilles tear, plus a procedure earlier this year to remove bone spurs from his left ankle.