Richard Sherman Shares Insight Into Rocky Yet Motivating Relationship With Michigan Coach Jim Harbaugh

Ever since their days at Stanford, Richard Sherman and Jim Harbaugh have not gotten along. Yet, the unique dynamic between the two men helped propel Sherman to the NFL and continued to provide him with motivation upon his arrival.

Sherman was originally recruited as wide receiver by the Cardinal's previous coach Walt Harris, arriving on campus in 2006. Harbaugh took over the program in 2007 and by the following season, Sherman had switched to cornerback so he wouldn’t have to deal with Harbaugh as much, indicating how pretentious the relationship truly was.

This tension escalated when Harbaugh later removed him from the San Francisco 49ers draft board, which led to the Seattle Seahawks taking him in the fifth round of the 2011 NFL Draft. These moments provided Sherman with further motivation to succeed and were also quietly a blessing in disguise.

“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 went on to have a decorated NFL career, making five Pro Bowls and winning a Super Bowl with Seattle in 2014. Even a decade after leaving Stanford, the outspoken corner carried his dislike for Harbaugh. In fact, Sherman famously said he wanted to put his former college coach out of the NFL before playing in the Super Bowl in 2020.

Even amidst a tumultuous relationship, Sherman feels Harbaugh's suspension for sign-stealing was 'dumb.'

“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. “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 It’s outdated.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.”

Sherman is now an analyst for Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football and 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.