Getty Richard Sherman at Super Bowl media day.
The Detroit Lions nearly signed Richard Sherman a few years back, but the cornerback elected to sign instead with the San Francisco 49ers.
Now, in hindsight, it looks like a great decision by Sherman, as he will play with the 49ers in the Super Bowl this weekend. And as Sherman explained, the decision to sign with San Francisco and leave money on the table in Detroit wasn’t all that difficult in the end.
The reason? Sherman didn’t perceive the fit in Detroit as good for him. As he explained to The Athletic at the Super Bowl, he had some reservations about joining the Lions, who are trying to build their team like the Patriots. As he said, the way the team is running the franchise didn’t exactly appeal to him.
Particularly, Sherman didn’t want to deal with training and conditioning after practices, and wanted a more relaxed environment rather than approaching football like a business.
How much did Sherman leave on the table? In the neighborhood of $20 million dollars in Detroit. He ended up opting for more incentives in San Francisco because he believed in Kyle Shanahan and Robert Saleh and wanted to win there rather than lose with the Lions.
Richard Sherman was actually offered more guaranteed money by the Lions ($20 million), but he chose a more incentive-based deal with the 49ers because he wanted a relaxed culture and thought Shanahan and Saleh with the right personnel were unbeatable
Safe to say he could be proven right in the end, especially if the 49ers are able to win the Super Bowl. The gamble for Sherman has seemingly already paid off.
Richard Sherman’s Career Resurgence
Prior to landing with San Francisco, Sherman enjoyed a productive career with the Seattle Seahawks in which he was one of the best cornerbacks in the game. He claimed a Super Bowl win, then played in another Super Bowl. In his career, he’s put up 436 tackles and 35 interceptions. He’s made 5 Pro Bowls and has been a 3 time first-team All-Pro.
After having an Achilles injury, Sherman gambled on himself and won in the form of a contract with the 49ers. He’s been one of the veteran anchors of the defensive backfield there.
Glover Quin Explains Matt Patricia’s Leadership Style
Former safety Glover Quin, who played with Patricia in 2018 before he retired, recently joined the Surf & Turf Podcast from Barstool Sports and explained what it was like to meet Patricia for the first time and play for the coach.
As he said, Patricia is a good person, but he has an edge about him in the building which can make it difficult to deal with him.
“He’s a very nice guy. He’ll talk to you. He makes it easy to talk to. Seems like he cares a lot about people, so he definitely had that quantity. But then all of a sudden you get on the practice field, the meeting room, a switch goes off and he’s a completely different guy,” Quin said in the clip.
According to Quin, Patricia wanted to put his stamp on the team very early upon coming to the Lions, and came in with an attitude immediately.
“I think one of the biggest things is humility. (Jim) Caldwell came in and basically changed the culture humbly. I feel like Patricia came in, and he came from New England, and they have whatever,” Quin said. “I think instead of him coming in and humbly gaining the respect of the players, I think he came in and kind of had a negative attitude about Detroit. Like, kind of probably what most of the world thinks about that.”
Quin admitted that he had seen plenty of change in Detroit going from Jim Schwartz to Jim Caldwell to Patricia as a head coach, and he felt the team was in a bit better shape than Patricia may have given them credit for upon coming to Detroit.
“I kind of felt like from 2013-2017, the culture in Detroit had changed. The culture was different. We went to two playoff games, we were right at 9-7, I think we had a year we went 10-6. We were right there playing against Green Bay at the end for division titles, so wasn’t like we were a dumpster fire of a team,” he said. “We had a good quarterback, good offensive pieces, a good defense. I kind of felt like Patricia came in and thought everything here is trash and I just have to do a total re-haul of everything.”
Patricia, for his part, has maintained that it takes time to change a culture completely and get a program going, and it’s true tons of the players speaking out were more comfortable with Caldwell’s style of leadership and change is to be expected. Still, Quin’s comments are interesting. Obviously, the team is gambling on Patricia’s style eventually paying off and leading the franchise over the top, even if it still hasn’t.
As is shown by Sherman’s comments, however, it doesn’t rub everybody the right way.
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