You may care little about football or you may have watched last night’s game with bated breath. Either way, there’s a pretty good chance that by now you’ve seen or heard reference to Richard Sherman’s post-game interview. See it here. It’s intense.

The media reaction has been split between condemnation for his unsportsman-like conduct and dismissal as typical exuberance in the tail of a significant win. What has also followed were media responses that implicated race, some subtly and some not so subtly (I’ve seen a few online comments that make me feel pretty disappointed in society).

Interestingly, Sherman has a communications degree from Stanford, which points to a higher level of PR awareness: He looked straight into the camera and avoided inappropriate language, even while he hollered like a WWF wrestler.  Sherman himself has outlined a response in his column where he says, “To those who would call me a thug or worse because I show passion on a football field—don’t judge a person’s character by what they do between the lines. Judge a man by what he does off the field, what he does for his community, what he does for his family.”

So, what do you think? Does Richard Sherman’s post-game interview deserve to be lambasted for his aggressive speech? Or is this just part of the football mythology that embraces showboating, touchdown dances and crushing people whenever possible? Tommy Tomlinson, sportswriter, has some thoughts over on Forbes if you’re interested.

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