Richard Sherman: He's the man, he's the man, he's the man....and we've all been duped.

To all of us who met Richard Sherman for the first time in the NFC Championships game, he did his best to impersonate the thug that he's been wrongly accused of all of his life.

Ironically, Sherman either ran out to tell everybody that he's the man, he's the man, in the locker room after the game winning play, or he already cut that commercial for the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones.  Before he and Dre' made it clear that he doesn't like that thug label, he told us in a poignant interview how guys from Compton that go to Stanford are an oxymoron.

Where did this Richard Sherman come from?  Given the odd release of that commercial and the coordinated misbehavior to support the marketing effort, I am left to wonder if that street smart, book smart oxymoron with dreads is pulling a fast one on us all.  Disregard that last sentence.  I know for certain that he is pulling a fast one on us.  He would be under utilizing his book and streets smarts to do any less.

Football is a game of big guys hitting other big guys and hoping you're the one who gets up in the end.  If you survive to have a long career, you are the beneficiary of luck and blessings that defy the typical career of an NFL player.  The NFL is not a guaranteed contract world like other pro sports, so you better front load your contract, and bleed the life out of any endorsement opportunity that you get.

When I wrote that the Richard  who made the amazing play, and later correctly used the word oxymoron in a sentence, was Dick'd by the loud mouth with vibrado, little did I know that he had already cashed the check that vibrado earned him.

Sherman will make a load of money before his days are done and could go down as one of the best who every played if he remains on this current path.  His game continues to cash the checks that his mouth writes for him, and his notoriety has gone viral with both lovers and haters joining together to justify his publicity stunt.

The beauty of intelligence is its power of self expression.  Richard Sherman is a beautifully self expressive person. To simply call him intelligent would miss the mark. His power of self expression is as impressive on the field as it is at the podium.  If by the end of his career he has maintained his thug image, than thugs should be proud.