Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman is now trying to claim his post-press conference spat with a local radio host and columnist in which he threatened "I'll ruin your career" didn't happen despite audio clearing disputing that assertion.
After a heated press conference on December 20 - nearly a week after Sherman blew up on the sidelines at head coach Pete Carroll and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell against the Los Angeles Rams - Sherman stepped down from the podium and proceeded to engage Jim Moore further.
"You don't want to go there. You do not. I'll ruin your career," Sherman said.
"You'll ruin my career?" Moore replied.
"Yes. Yes, I will," Sherman said.
"How are you going to do that?" Moore responded.
"I'll make sure you don't get your media pass any more," Sherman said.
"Oh, is that right?"
"Yes. Yes it is."
In an interview with Cari Champion of ESPN, Sherman tries to claim that nobody knows what happened.
"Nobody ever knew what I said," Sherman claimed. "Once again, 'sources say.' Who was there? Did anybody see it? Who was there? Who said it?"
Champion followed up asking "so that was not correct?"
"Nobody knows. Nobody knows what was correct. All you hear is 'he said, she said.'"
Except Sherman is blatantly wrong about that. Who was there? The entire media corps that covers the Seahawks, including myself, was there. And we have tools to help us do our jobs called recorders so that we make sure we can quote people correctly.
That's how I was able to transcribe the exchange between Sherman and Moore word-for-word. But if for some reason you won't take me at my word, the audio of the exchange is attached to the bottom of this story. He also later apologized for the incident and admitted he let it get personal.
"It was incorrect how they portrayed it, yes," Sherman continued. "It gets to the point where nobody needs the truth anymore. Nobody cares to know what the truth is. You can just fabricate a story and go with it and then I got to defend a fabricated story. After a while you just get irritated of defending stories that don't exist."
The truth is Sherman said exactly what he was quoted as saying. It happened. He knows it happened, which is why he apologized for it in the first place. The fact that Sherman now wants to claim otherwise and then tries to lament the erosion of truth is insulting. He's smarter than that.
Photo Credit: BALTIMORE, MD - DECEMBER 13: Cornerback Richard Sherman #25 of the Seattle Seahawks looks on against the Baltimore Ravens in the fourth quarter at M&T Bank Stadium on December 13, 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)