Richard Sherman Monologue

Alexander Valentin
Instructor King
ENC 1101
2/6/2015

All around me there is a mixture of excitement and fear. People are in pain, shocked with disbelief, upset. In an instant millions of emotions went from astounded, excited, and anxious, to heartbroken and defeated. I’m in shock and can’t even begin to understand how it was that I got here. It’s January 19, 2014. The Seattle Seahawks just beat the San Francisco 49ers in the toughest game I can recall. I’m Richard Sherman, and I’m the reason why they won. I’m the best in the NFL, and everyone is about to know it. But what I still can’t understand is, how did I get here?
Some think I’m opinionated, arrogant, a thug, but just about everybody thinks Richard Sherman is a nobody. I’m here to

prove them wrong. My first bit of notoriety came when I shut down Tom Brady when he called myself and my team a bunch of nobodies and got in his face afterward. There was the time after that when I started a war with Darrelle Revis, and seemingly every ignorant NFL fan, about why I was the best corner in the NFL. All that and that’s without mentioning the time I humiliated an ESPN anchor on his own TV show. But is that how I got here? To the biggest stage of all? No. My way of getting here, all the way to the SuperBowl, started way before I played a down in the NFL.
My path to the Superbowl started when I was growing up in a tough part of L.A. To me it was home, to everyone else it was Compton. I knew from all the way back when I was 7 that I was going to be a football player. Sometime around where Deion sanders got his huge contract, something like 7 years for 35 million. Can someone really be paid that much for playing a game? A game that I play for free? I knew that was the life for me.
Despite living in a rough area, my folks always set a great example for me. My dad, he would leave the house at 4 in the morning to drive a garbage truck to make sure there was food and a house over our heads. My mother, she taught mentally disabled kids for the County of L.A, always preaching patience growing up. My parents preached academics above everything though. At one point I’d be in a tough class in class school, get a B, and get the most ridiculously stern looks. My parents always kept myself and siblings in sports though, they saw it as something to keep us busy rather than letting us get taken over by the streets.
Eventually my dad started to coach one of my football teams.

He taught me how to be tough, to be a great football player. He would put me against the biggest kid on the field and would make me try to run him over. Now I don’t know if you’ve ever tried taking down someone bigger than you, especially as an 11 year old kid, but it isn’t fun. I closed my eyes and ran the guy over. At least I thought I did. “Again!” my dad yelled. I tensed up ready to try again, and again got humiliated. The kid twice my size hit me even harder that time. My dad grabbed me, picked me up and threw me down. “Do it right! Be a football player!” I’ll never forget he shouted. The next try, I destroyed the kid. Sent him flying. Since that day I knew I’d never be afraid on the field

again.
When I got to high school I would play both offense and defense, and being the best player on the field, lots of college’s recruited me. My parents always reminded me, knowledge is power, so I knew if I did well in school, I’d have as much control over my life as I wanted. So I studied, I studied to where other kids were going on dates and enjoying their weekends, I was neck deep in some book about material we wouldn’t even cover for another 2 months. My parents gave me the greatest advice I would ever receive when I was young, that I could learn so much if I was willing to go outside my comfort zone. So I made sure to never have a comfort zone.
Knowing knowledge is power, after high school I decided to go to Stanford.

There wasn’t a position for me on the football team, but the degree was the utmost important thing. That, and I knew I would make myself a position on the team if I had to. Eventually at Stanford I established myself as the, in my eyes, best corner in the nation. For some reason I’ll never understand, despite turning around a troubled football program, and killing it with my grades, when the nfl draft came and went, I went undrafted. UNDRAFTED! ME! Every team passed on me, even my eventual Seahawks. That disrespect motivated me, motivates me to this day, so when you see me, don’t think of me as the thug, think of me as the guy you never gave enough respect

to.
That feeling overflowed when the Pats came to Seattle. Tom Brady, known for his bravado and spectacular trash talk, was letting me and my teammates have it. Oh boy was he letting loose. He acted like we were nobody, like we were just there to watch as he beat our team senseless. In case you don’t know, 4 quarters and a trip through hell later, We won 24-23. If you don’t think I let Tom know we won, you don’t know me at all. It was essentially my first moment in the spotlight, where I got to tell thus far, the greatest qb of all time, we got him. Now, I’ll play the game the right way, I won’t hurt anybody, but if you don’t respect me, or doubt me, I’m gonna send it right back your way multiplied by 100.
January 19, 2014. It’s about to be the end of the year, or the 49er’s year anyway. Michael Crabtree, our biggest rival’s best receiver, has been jawing all game. He thinks he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. I’m about to let him know he’s not. 5 seconds left, its 4th and goal, Seahawks lead by 5. The 49er’s QB drops back, ball is in the air, its coming right for me and Crabtee and… I intercept it. I come up with, potentially, the biggest stop in Seahawks History. With all the emotions flowing around, I can’t help but let the whole world know in an interview, that im the best receiver there is, and that the 49ers made the biggest mistake of their life trying me. They learned their lesson and get to go home, and I get to be right where I am. On my way to the Superbowl.