ivotuk":1mg4gzzl said:
I think it's pathetic. Pete and John treated MB better than any other Head Office would have, giving him big contracts and supporting him in his en-devours outside of football, and this is how he repays them.
Reading a book in a meeting in stabbing Pete in the back. There are 60 plus players in there, many young ones, and they are looking at a Senior player snubbing their head coach.
And blaming everything on one play is ridiculous. They're saying that there was no responsibility anywhere else for that loss than Darrell Bevell. That's immature. And then hanging on to that years later as if it's the end of the world, using it as an excuse to give the Coaches, and ultimately the rest of the teams and fans a big middle finger, is selfish and childish.
Mind your own business, and stop throwing blame for things you don't like at others. These guys are multimillionaires, some with generational wealth that fans will never see. Act like a professional. :34853_doh:
I'll Devil's Advocate for Sherman on a speculative basis since obviously I don't know whats going on in that noodle of his:
1. There are so few inflection points for success, failure and change in the course of an NFL career. Whereas most people in the labor market accrue 200 odd days of work a year on which we have success and failures, NFL players have 16 days a year (maybe 20!) to use as a basis to measure themselves (and net future income considerations) and to achieve their overall work objective. A bad week at the beginning of the year usually doesn't have an impact on the rest of your year - in the NFL it's simply different.
2. With point 1 in mind, having one of those perilous few inflection points end in such an awful fashion stands out. Couple this with Sherman's already emotional (read that as passionate if you're being generous) personality and an innate desire to explain it all, Bevell winds up as the whipping boy in Sherman's mind. This doesn't even need to be an effort to save face for himself or the defensive unit - it could be a loss of trust, which could explain why it is all the more fiery for Sherman. He was beyond heart broken that the game was certainly lost with him as a passive bystander in the moment where it seemed like victory was almost assured after a seeming crescendo on Kearse's circus catch. To go from "My boys are gonna get this done" to "WHAT IN THE FRESH HELL" in a moment was visible from that sideline shot of him reacting to the play. Marshawn is a kindred spirit here and they feed off one another.
3. Bevell doesn't refute Sherman's irrational scapegoating through performance. In fact, the offense starts routinely validating that irrational belief. An irrational belief is still irrational even if there is coincidental support, right? But the offense does objectively deteriorate by most measures from they very start of '16 onward.
4. This in turn puts more on the back of Sherman et al to provide increasing support which they have trouble maintaining. So not only is the core of Sherman's ire driving the team into the ground, they're also making him look bad and the rest of the defense as well for not playing to peak levels. It's not just about Bevell and the offense at this point, it's about how the defense is struggling to be the rock they once were.
5. 2017 - injury ends a mediocre season with one of the most lamentable offenses Sherman has played with. Sherman feels robbed of glory despite his efforts, his pleading, his outspokenness and attention seeking. He feels totally validated that he was right and was ignored for reasons beyond comprehension to him. How could they ignore such an obvious problem?
6. Sherman signs with the Niners.
I'm going to add some additional speculation to the detriment of Sherman:
Sherman is a nerd at heart who wants to understand the metagame of football and who thinks he already does to a significant degree. This isn't inherently a bad thing but like many a nerd who enjoys the fruits of their intellectual labor, he became entitled and too big for his role on the team.
Speaking from personal experience as someone who has run afoul of managerial authority many times because I thought I knew better and acted on it impulsively, I can sense some sort of rationale and basis for Sherman's actions and attitude. But I got broken so many times over it that I questioned my own perceived wisdom. Being quick and clever and occasionally right in itself doesn't justify undermining other people's jobs.
One could argue that the trust relationship between coaches and players is what keeps open undermining at bay and thus clearly Sherman's was fragmented. But so what? At some point he either accepted he's on a ship of fools and he would do whatever he could wherever he could to make the best of it for everyone or could start putting shivs in people and get thrown overboard. And he had the option to get off the ship soon voluntarily as well.
But again, i think that the NCAA to NFL experience has a very different impact on how it shapes perspectives and outlooks. I am a firm believer that experience and situation are very much a part of identity and the idea of how one would or should act given dissimilar personal circumstance is hollow. Should Sherman be more mature than this? Good God yes. But given some inherent part of who he is coupled with where he got to be where he is, it's not a a huge mystery why he's acting immature. There's never really been iron to sharpen iron there. He's been exceptional his whole life, hasn't screwed it up with categorically foolish decisions or actions, hasn't borne a bad consequence of his exceptionalism...and faced with one of the biggest heartbreaks in something that obviously matters a ton to him as a bystander in the moment...I don't see how he would have handled it any different. Could have, sure, should have, absolutely, would have...naaaaaaah.
Bennett...man...reading a book during a team meeting is 10 year old defiance. No shame in telling coaches you are tuning out. That's what they're there for.
God what a long soap opera diatribe. Girl's Night for my wife and a full pipe really lend itself to verbosity something fierce.
