Richard Sherman on Jim Harbaugh’s Suspension: ‘I Think the Sign-Stealing Rule Is Dumb’ (Exclusive)

Richard Sherman isn’t a fan of Jim Harbaugh. Sherman famously said he wanted to put his former college coach out of the NFL before playing in the Super Bowl in 2020. But Sherman says he disagrees with the Big Ten’s current three-game suspension of Harbaugh following the conference’s sign-stealing investigation.

“I’m not a fan of what they’re doing to him honestly because I don’t think it makes a difference,” Sherman told The Messenger on Monday. “I understand there needs to be punishment if the sign-stealing thing went on but I think the sign-stealing rule is dumb in the first place. It’s outdated.

“We’re in a digital age now and that was an analog system rule where you didn’t have the technology you do these days and had to signal in plays. Now you have headphones in the helmet and you have ways to communicate to quarterbacks and linebackers to bring the plays into the offense and defense and you shouldn’t need to signal it in the way they do now. Punishing a team that’s in a billion-dollar industry for doing everything they can to give their team a competitive advantage is weird to me. He did the crime and he’s doing his time, I guess.”

There has been talk of Harbaugh fleeing to the NFL after this season to avoid being suspended during the 2024 season and possible sanctions from the NCAA stemming from its own investigation, which could include not only sign-stealing but possible booster involvement and destroying evidence. Sherman, however, believes Harbaugh will end up staying in college despite interest from the NFL. 

“I don’t think he wants to go to the NFL,” Sherman said. “I think he’s right where he wants to be. The NFL is not for everybody. It was for him. He had success and went to a Super Bowl but I think he’s really enjoying being at his alma mater and the love that they give him. His style could still work in the NFL but I think it definitely works better in a college program. I think he understands that and they’re paying him NFL type money so I don’t think he’s complaining.”    

Sherman and Harbaugh didn’t get along when Harbaugh was the head coach at Stanford and Sherman, who was recruited by previous coach Walt Harris, was on the Cardinal from 2006-10. Sherman believes their conflict ended up being a blessing in disguise. Sherman, who played wide receiver from 2006 to 2008, was switched to cornerback so he wouldn’t have to deal with Harbaugh as much. Harbaugh would later remove Sherman from the San Francisco 49ers draft board, which led to the Seattle Seahawks taking him in the fifth round of the 2011 draft. The slight fueled Sherman to five Pro Bowls and a Super Bowl championship.  

“I think it helped me tremendously,” Sherman said. “It was one of the biggest drivers and motivators for me on the days when you don’t feel like getting up and doing something and you don’t feel like going out and putting in the extra work. You remember the times nobody believed in you. You remember the times where you weren’t getting picked where you wanted to get picked. Where you weren’t seen in the way you wanted to be seen. You weren’t getting the respect you desired. It really fuels you to go out there and put in the work and put the extra time in and remind people who you say you are.”        

Sherman, 35, is now an analyst for Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football. He recently went door-to-door with former NFL quarterback and fellow Prime Video analyst Ryan Fitzpatrick delivering Amazon packages in one of the company’s new 10,000 electric delivery vans from Rivian. Sitting in the van and going door-to-door, it was hard for Sherman not to think of his father, Kevin, who went from home-to-home as a garbage man for 28 years and continued his job even after Sherman signed a four-year, $56 million contract with the Seahawks in 2011.

“He instilled that consistency and not making excuses regardless of your situation,” Sherman said. “He didn’t have the most desirable job in the world. He didn’t have the most glamorous job in the world but he did it. I went to work with him once and I did not want to go back because I could not imagine driving around for eight hours and it smells like, well, trash consistently. You have cars honking because they’re frustrated and they want to get around you like they don’t need their trash picked up too.”

Sherman, who will be working the first-ever NFL Black Friday Football game on Prime Video the day after Thanksgiving, when the Miami Dolphins travel to face the New York Jets, is thankful for the lessons his father taught him as a child. Kevin Sherman would leave home for work every morning at 3:50 a.m. and work even more when he came back.  

“He would come home and whatever needed to be fixed would get fixed,” Sherman said. “Whether it was the car, a pipe burst or the refrigerator is not working, Dad would fix it. He was going to make it work. It really taught me that no matter what happens, no matter what situation you’re in, you go to work and you don’t make excuses. You just find a way to get it done. That’s the way I approached everything. His job was much harder than the jobs I’ve had. People say sports are hard but it’s not as hard as providing for a family week-in and week-out and day-in and day-out and going to a job you don’t necessarily love to go to.”

The one thing Sherman is not thankful for is the current state of college football and the disintegration of the Pacific-12 Conference he played in while he was at Stanford. He still can’t wrap his head around Saturday’s game against Notre Dame being the school’s last football game in the conference before the Cardinal moves to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“It’s insane,” Sherman said. “A Pacific Coast school being in the Atlantic Coast Conference is insane to me. I knew we would have to find a way to get into one of these big conferences. There are only so many. The Pac-12 has been on the way down for a long time and not being able to get into the College Football Playoff because every year it’s cannibalism. Some team is going to beat the team that was supposed to go in, whether it’s USC, Oregon, Washington or another school. Some team like Utah comes out of nowhere and beats them late and knocks them out. It’s unfortunate. I thought there was a chance for Stanford to go independent like Notre Dame and have a schedule where they could play their rivals like USC, Cal and Notre Dame every year. It’s just unfortunate. It’s a sad time.”