RUSH: Well, did you watch any of the championship games over the weekend, the National Football League? The overnight ratings say that you did. A lot of people watched it. I just wanted to remind you that, I, El Rushbo, proven correct. Both games, in fact the standard football analysis picks and the environmentalist wacko pick methods, both would have worked, both did work. I was two-for-two. And, of course, the difference in the 49er game and the Seahawk game, it’s clear that the Seahawks, as a team are more pro-gay than even the Fort’iners.

And great to have you with us, folks. Rush Limbaugh, the EIB Network, the him limb. Great to have you. Telephone number is 800-282-2882.

I tell you, my e-mail lit up. I guess a lot of people’s did, with reaction to Richard Sherman, the postgame interview with Erin Andrews, after the 49ers-Seahawks game. Actually, there’s an element of this story that some may not know. Richard Sherman is a cornerback for the Seahawks. He’s out of Stanford. He played for Jim Harbaugh who coached Stanford when Richard Sherman was there. Sherman went to Stanford from Compton, California. His dad has driven a garbage truck in Compton. Compton is a place you get out of if you’re lucky. And Sherman did.

He was a wide receiver at Stanford for two years, became a cornerback, played for the 49ers coach, Jim Harbaugh. Last summer I guess it was, Larry Fitzgerald, a wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals had a charity event, a golf tournament or some such thing, and at that event Richard Sherman and Michael Crabtree nearly got in a fight that apparently Crabtree started.

This is the best information I’ve got, ’cause what happened yesterday was Sherman had not been thrown on all day, and the 49ers had one play left to win the game, and Colin Kaepernick fired into the corner of the end zone for Crabtree. The pass was deflected by Sherman, and intercepted by a Seahawks linebacker, thereby sealing the defeat for the 49ers. It was the third or fourth interception that Kaepernick had thrown, certainly the third in the fourth quarter.

So after the game Erin Andrews, working for Fox, got hold of Richard Sherman and this is what lit up everybody’s e-mail. Sherman was asked about the last play and this is what happened.

SHERMAN: I’m the best corner in the game! When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree that’s the result you gonna get! Don’t you ever talk about me!

ANDREWS: Who was talking about you?

SHERMAN: Crabtree. Don’t you open your mouth about the best! I’m gonna shut it for you real quick!

RUSH: There are so many people who claimed that they were Seahawks fans who are now claiming they’re rooting for the Broncos in the Super Bowl ’cause they just hate this. This guy’s become a villain. He’s become an arrogant egomaniac, all about me, saying these mean things about another player that nobody knows the history between the two. Crabtree didn’t do anything to Sherman that anybody saw, so it didn’t make any sense. It was raw.

Frankly, folks, I’m surprised we don’t get more postgame interviews like this, when the adrenaline is still pumping and the emotions are still raw. These people are playing for the championship of the National Football League. The NFC conference, go to the Super Bowl. This is huge stuff. This is their life. They’re all wound up. And cornerbacks in the NFL are an amazing ego study. The successful ones are the biggest ego freaks. They think they’re the best, every damn one of them thinks they’re the best, from Nnamdi Asomugha when he was with the Raiders, now the husband of what’s-her-name, Kerry Washington, to Darrelle Revis.

They all think they’re the best, that nobody can touch ’em, and even when somebody completes a pass on ’em they don’t lose their confidence, ’cause they’re out on an island all by themselves. They seldom get any help, and it’s a lonely position. You get torched or you’re great, and the adrenaline flows. And, by the way, I want to tell you something about Sherman. Richard Sherman, I don’t know him, obviously. Richard Sherman is a really smart guy. Richard Sherman’s been writing a column once a week for a new website called Monday Morning Quarterback, which is the website Peter King, Sports Illustrated, started on his own. When his deal with Sports Illustrated was expanded they gave him his own website.

Sherman writes a weekly piece, and the guy’s smart. He’s football smart, but he’s got great grammar, great vocabulary. That’s why this outburst yesterday surprised a lot of people who know the guy ’cause he really is a smart guy. So they caught up with him later, the postgame show. You got Erin Andrews talking to Strahan and Sherman. Strahan says: “I think you scared Erin Andrews. You scared her half to death. But you and Crabtree in the end zone, what was that all about?”

SHERMAN: Well, you know, I’m a competitor and I don’t like people saying negative things about me. I don’t like people, you know, running their mouth. So, I told him good game, and good try, but IÂ’m the best corner in the league.

JIMMY JOHNSON: Hey Richard, now this is the big question. You guys have been shutting down receivers all year long. Do you have enough defensive backs to go up against Denver?

SHERMAN: Well, we’ll find out soon enough, won’t we? (laughter)

CURT MENAFEE: I’m sure you’ll find a way.

RUSH: I’m convinced that if people got to know Sherman they’d like him, based on the ability you have to get to know him. He came out of Compton, California, solid family despite that place being just an infested slum. It’s South Central LA. He’s really, from the way he writes, a student of the game of football. He’s really a smart guy. And some people say, “Yeah, but, Rush, this is who he really is.” Well, we’ll find out. But I, like everybody else, I was stunned and shocked. But then again I thought about it and I’m surprised we don’t get more of this in the post — Snerdley came in, he’d never heard of this guy before, he was all livid today about this guy.

Well, it’s a different country now. It’s a different world. Everybody is saying this is not how you’re supposed to be. Let me give you a contrast. I don’t know how many of you noticed this who watched the game. Almost the exact opposite of this occurred earlier in the game. A running back for the Seahawks by the name of Marshawn Lynch had a 40-yard touchdown run and when all of his teammates met him in the end zone they wanted him to do a spike and a high five and all kinds of things. He said, “Nope.” Did you see this? He shook hands with every teammate.

There were no histrionics. There was no chest thumping. It was, hey, bro, we’re gonna make this look like we’re used to this. We’re not gonna get a flag. The game isn’t over here. We got nothing to celebrate. I scored a touchdown. Shook hands and the emotion was kept at a minimum. I guarantee you it was as surprising as Sherman’s outburst at the end of the game was surprising, and the natural, “You just don’t do what Sherman did. You don’t make it all about you. You don’t go off on people like that.” Aren’t we told there aren’t any limits on this kind of behavior? We’ve gotta learn to adjust. This is the way the country is now. This is the way things have evolved.

Anyway, Sherman has made himself the big story of the Super Bowl. But there’s gonna be something else that might come up during Super Bowl week involving Pete Carroll, the coach of the Seahawks. I’m gonna hold this in check to see if anybody else gets this. I’m not gonna be the first to lob this grenade. IÂ’ll wait to see if this comes up. (interruption) Yes, a question from the Official Program Observer? (interruption) Mmm-hmm.

Well, now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. What do you mean, “when this elevates out in the street and an NFL player ends up dead”? ‘Cause of what Sherman did? (interruption) Well, but nothing happened. (interruption) It didn’t happen. (interruption) No, no. This… (interruption) It didn’t happen. There weren’t any deaths in the streets after the game. Whatever Sherman did didn’t inspire any behavior you’re talking about, on the field or off.

By the way, he taunted Crabtree. You know, you cannot make the choking gesture. You can’t grab your neck and emulate choking yourself. It’s a 15 yard-penalty. He did that while talking to Crabtree after the play. There’s a history between the two. Anyway, Sherman’s made himself the story. The only thing I want to say about it is, I’m not condoning it — and I don’t want to overdo this.

But you go read some of the things that Sherman has written about his job, the way he approaches it, about other people that play the game. I’m telling you, this is a smart guy. I’m not in any way defending or condoning this and I’m not even trying to say I understand it, and I’m not going leftist touchy-feely on you. I’m just sharing with you what I think of him.

I was two-for-two on my picks, and they were proven correct in each game. Even the issue, you know, that I made the picks based on actual football analysis. Had I gone environmentalist wacko in picking the games — and I realize some of you don’t know what that is. You haven’t been around long enough. Later on in the program, I’ll review the Broncos-Patriots. That’s the ideal game to illustrate how you choose using the environmentalist wacko method.

The environmentalist wacko method, basically, was started by me because I love football and like to talk about it, to attract people to the program who didn’t. I said, “Okay, if I can draw a connection between picking football games and the environmentalist movement, for example, it might attract people, or at least make them not tune out.” So I’ll give you an example of what the environmentalist wacko pick would have been later on in the program.

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RUSH: Also I got a question: Why would a smart guy…? If you say Sherman’s so smart, why would he act like an idiot on TV after the game? I think I might be able answer that. Well, I’m gonna take a stab at answering that.

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RUSH: Richard Sherman. Why would…? He is a smart guy, folks. We have to define “smart,” obviously, but he’s educated, and he’s well spoken. He writes extremely well. He’s very knowledgeable about the game’s history and current strategic techniques and so forth. If you read stuff that he writes, you’d be impressed. So why would a guy who’s that smart act like an idiot? Well, what is the root of it? The root of it, I think, is that it’s obviously ego, but it’s rooted in more.

If you look at what he said: “I’m the best corner in the game. When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree, that’s a result you’re gonna get. Don’t you ever talk about me,” and Erin Andrews is clueless. She has no idea what he was talking about, and she said, “Who was talking about you?” “Crabtree!” There’s the root of it. Richard Sherman thinks that everybody knows that he’s got something going on with Michael Crabtree of the 49ers, and nobody knows.

I’m sure Obama, at the end of the day, thinks the whole country’s thinking about him every day. There’s some people so lost in their egos that they really do think that everybody is fascinated with what they’re doing and knows intimately everything going on in their life. And then, of course, Sherman thinks he was disrespected by being thrown on. That is cultural. Then there’s adrenaline in the heat of the moment and everything else.

But as I say, he’s succeeded in making himself the story, the first story leading up to the Super Bowl.
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RUSH: Let me go out on a limb, ladies and gentlemen, and that is telling you about Richard Sherman. I mentioned earlier in the program, this is the guy, again, that had the egotistical, egoistic rant after the game last night that so many people found objectionable, and I’m telling you, the guy is bright as he can be. He is really smart, well spoken, well educated. He has worked hard to escape his childhood circumstances, economic and otherwise. He comes from a very solid family. His father has driven a sanitation truck his entire life in Compton, California.

He went to Stanford, went to class, graduated, is extremely well spoken, well written, and I frankly think as I go out on a limb here, I don’t want to put pressure on people that they perhaps don’t want themselves. He would be an ideal role model for young people of all races, simply because of his work ethic, because of his achievements and accomplishments. That’s why this thing last night that he did was really out of character, in a sense.

Now, it was also real, and it happened. I think I can probably explain it in terms of ego, which I took a stab at earlier so I don’t want to cover old ground. But if you search this guy, find some things on him at YouTube, find some things that he’s said, done, written, so forth, you’ll agree with me. He, I think, has a lot to offer in that regard. But, again, he may not have any desire to do that, either, so I’m not trying to put any pressure on him whatsoever. Put it this way. He studies the game every bit as much as Peyton Manning does, his facet of it. His assessment of other players and how he studies other cornerbacks and competes against them is — if you’re a fan of football, it’s fascinating stuff.