I realize that everyone has hopped onboard this story, including overseas outlets such as The Guardian, but I thought I might bring a little different perspective to Sherman’s rant.
Sherman was Salutatorian of his high school and went to Stanford. He was raised in a two parent home, his parents work, his brother works and they are solid citizens. And yet he had the code word “thug” thrown back at him.
Such football confrontations are legion. This past November, noted non-thug Tom Brady (shown above) cursed out a referee at the end of a game, chasing him into the tunnel. Did you hear about it? Probably not. Was it all over CNN for days? Nope. So there’s that to chew on.
Are either men to blame? Surely, both could aspire to better sportsmanship. And yet, only one feels the condemnation of the world. I saw The Wolf of Wall Street the day after the NFC Championship game, and it struck me that what unites the film with the athlete is testosterone.
Of course, under the CW, Wall Streeters are masters of the universe, “uber-males” or some other Tom Woolf expression. Brady? A hard working player, leader of his team, passionately arguing his case to the ref. Sherman? The world holds him to another standard. Hardly seems fair.
In law it is often about the packaging as well. I had a case where plaintiff slipped and fell in dog “stuff.” You can imagine how the case was referred to in the office. Eventually, the case got switched to an evangelical Christian trial lawyer and we went to trial — with us telling the jury it was a flower shop case. When you can, you must mold the language as an advocate.