I read the article and thought it was interesting reading if overly melodramatic. I'd take Richard Sherman on my team any day of the week, and twice on Sunday (as the saying goes). Clearly he CARES, and on the Pats what he complains about on the Seahawks wouldn't be happening here.
His biggest issue, as I see it, isn't so much what happened in superbowl 49, but the failure of anyone to take accountability for what happened then, AND accountability for the lack of offensive production since that game.
I totally agree. To the extent the underlying facts and opinions laid out in the piece are true, you see multiple examples of Sherman raging at the lack of accountability that Carroll's sunny-side-up routine tends to leave aside. If they're really treating Wilson
differently (i.e., not demanding that he improve upon his errors), then I honestly can't see how other locker room leaders
wouldn't have a fit over that type of atmosphere.
The oversimplified microcosm of the 6-6 tie game with Arizona lays out the thesis of the piece very well - Defense plays very well, carrying the team, offense / ST's scores 6 points and they don't win - Carroll says things are great and gives "participation trophy" level praise to everyone, including the OL who had been terrible.
Sherman goes ballistic because this isn't championship caliber behavior on an organizational scale.
But all that being said, Sherman's complaints wouldn't be valid here since accountability is ingrained into the culture by both the players AND the coaching staff, starting with the 2 most important people in the organization, Brady and BB. No, Sherman would thrive in this enviroment.
But it should be mentioned that Pete Carrol's style was criticized too much in this piece. It was his "style" that allowed Sherman to developed from an overlooked 5th round pick to the best CB in the league. You may want to question his decision to seemingly protect Wilson from any negativity, but you can't argue about what he's managed to get out of Wilson these past 5 years. Anyway, whatever Carroll has done out there has given Seattle a very successful team for last 5 years.
But it also shows goes to point out the genius of BB's program. Of how hard it is to MAINTAIN greatness over time. There are some coaches who are great at building a program, like Parcells. But he failed when he was called upon to maintain it. Carroll is now facing that test. He built a great program in Seattle. Now lets see if his "style" can maintain it.
We've seen Carroll maintain the Seahawks' system in the
short term - they were nearly 2x champs, 3/4 division winners, playoff contenders since 2013, etc. There's now the question of whether the Seahawks can propagate their success forward systematically over the medium / long term. If they cannot, then you basically have to see the Seahawks' success as a personality driven result (i.e., they were lucky enough to catch lightning in a bottle with good young QB plus Lynch, Bennett, Thomas, Sherman, Chancellor et al. all on the team at the same time).
If Carroll cannot adapt his program to either develop new players to replace superstars, or build upon the remaining time they have with their superstars with a system meant to support them, then we can identify it as a failure on his part.
BB has been amazing at retooling the Patriots, especially in identifying weaknesses via very honest self-scouting.
