Richard Sherman defends deal with 49ers
SANTA CLARA — A man who has made a living defending NFL wide receivers on Tuesday spent time defending the contract he signed with the 49ers.
Richard Sherman’s threeyear, $39 million deal, which he signed on March 12, has been widely criticized because much of it is tied to incentives. At a news conference Tuesday, Sherman said the criticism is rooted in the fact that he negotiated the deal by himself and that it’s in agents’ best interest to make it look foolhardy.
“I just think it’s one of those things where the agents feel uncomfortable with a player taking the initiative to do his own deal,” he said. “Obviously, it puts a fire under them, it makes them more accountable for their actions (or) more players will do this.”
The cornerback’s negotiation with general manager John Lynch and the 49ers’ chief contract negotiator, Paraag Marathe, took more than five hours and Sherman was on the phone with other interested teams — the Seahawks, Lions and Raiders — throughout. In the end, those teams didn’t have the salarycap space to accommodate the deal he had worked out with San Francisco.
Some of Sherman’s contract total is tied to making the Pro Bowl and All-Pro teams and to playing 90 percent of the 49ers’ defensive snaps. Those might have been reasonable goals in previous seasons, but Sherman will be 30 when the 2018 season begins and he’s coming off a ruptured Achilles tendon.
Recently retired Cleveland Browns offensive tackle Joe Thomas was one of the con-
tract’s critics, writing on Twitter that Sherman “got absolutely crushed” by the 49ers. “This is clearly a case of ego getting in the way of his pocket book,” Thomas wrote. Former Browns and Eagles executive Joe Banner agreed.
“Sherman is right that agents are likely to rip anytime a player does his own deal, but with all respect, this is a bad deal,” he wrote on Twitter. “Teams will be happy if more players do their own deals.”
Sherman said there were indeed other players who felt emboldened by what he had done.
“I think a lot more players feel educated enough to move forward and negotiate their own deals,” he said. “I think these agents sometimes benefit from relationships. ‘Oh, I know this GM. Oh, we’ve had dealings for years.’ And they really don’t have to do a ton of work. ‘Hey, I called this guy. How much are you willing to give him? Oh, $5 million? I’ll convince him that that’s good enough.’ ”