RUSH: Richard Sherman in trouble because he didn’t fall in line with what Black Lives Matter means.

SHERMAN: We need to deal with our own internal issue before we move forward and start pointing fingers and start attacking other people. We need to solidify ourselves as people and deal with our issues because I think as long as we have black-on-black crime and, you know, one black man killing one another, if Black Lives Matter, then they should matter all the time. You should never get somebody be killed. That’s somebody’s son; that’s somebody’s brother; that’s somebody’s friend.

RUSH: He’s getting roasted now in the black community because he talked about black-on-black crime. He says, “If you’re gonna talk about black lives matter, you better talk about black-on-black crime.” And that’s, no, you don’t talk about that. Black Lives Matter deals with only one thing, white-on-black crime, which is not nearly as prevalent as black-on-black crime. But the Black Lives Matter crowd, it’s not all lives matter, no, no, no, no. It’s only Black Lives Matter, because that’s all that’s being killed, usually by white cops.

So here comes Richard Sherman. He says (paraphrasing), “Look, I came from where you guys are talking about. I came from Compton. I worked my way up. I went to Stanford. I got no help. This is not going to solve anything. I don’t want to be enemies with these people that you want to be enemies of. I work with these people. I’ve prospered among these people. If you’re gonna talk about Black Lives Matter, you better talk about black-on-black crime.” And he is getting roasted for this. And next, this really added more insult to the injury. Now he defends the cops.

SHERMAN: I don’t think all cops are bad. There’s some great cops out there who do everything in their power to uphold the badge and uphold the honor and protect the people out in society. But there are bad cops, and I think that also needs to be addressed. I think the ignorance should stop, you know, I think people should realize that at the end of the day we’re all human beings so, you know, before we’re black, white, Asian, Polynesian, Latino, we’re humans.

RUSH: Richard Sherman, number 25, cornerback, Seattle Seahawks, and he finds himself deep in the pool of controversy here because he’s not following the script. It takes a lot of guts, takes a lot of guts. Let me tell you something, folks, for a sports guy, these people do not speak out this way. They endorse products. Michael Jordan’s a Democrat but he never talks about it. He doesn’t flaunt it because Republicans buy Nikes, too.

Same thing with Barkley. You know, Barkley may go off the deep end, but he always brings it back. Tiger Woods, you never know what he is or what he isn’t ’cause people of all political persuasions buy golf shirts and clubs and stuff. But Sherman, he’s got his own endorsement deals. I’m not sure who he’s with, but this is really courageous. It’s gutsy. You don’t find athletes taking stands like this. And I think it’s great that he is. They have tremendous influence.

Look at Brady, endorsed Trump. Did you hear that? Tom Brady came out and endorsed Trump. When’s the last time Tom Brady involved himself in politics at all? It just doesn’t happen. And secretly I’ve always wished more of these guys would because of the influence they have, the reasonable ones. The ones that care. I mean the ones that are involved, not just the ones being paid to do it, but the ones that actually care, they do have influence.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: By the way, I should point out that Michael Smith on ESPN2, it’s a program called His & Hers, Michael Smith, I think he’s an African-American reporter at ESPN, said (paraphrasing), “Sherman doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He’s wrong. He needs to read more before he starts talking about things like this.” He applauds and admires athletes speaking out, but Sherman didn’t know what he’s talking about here, but the ESPN guy does of course, see.