Richard Sherman said ‘hell of a game’ to Michael Crabtree before slap

Many people saw Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman make a game-saving play to end the NFC Championship game. They also saw him run after San Francisco 49ers cornerback Michael Crabtree, and then received a shove in the face as seen in the photo above. Given Sherman’s cocky attitude, not that there is anything wrong with that, and his reputation for trash talking, it was assumed that he said something to spark Crabtree’s response.

Showtime’s Inside The NFL equipped Sherman and Crabtree with microphones for that NFC Championship game and their interaction might be interesting. In the highlight reel you can see Sherman give Crabtree a friendly pat on the back of the helmet earlier in the game after a play. Nothing really comes about from that and it looks like Crabtree doesn’t even notice.

Then that tipped pass which led to an interception.

Sherman runs after Crabtree and pats him on the butt, then sticks out his hand and says “hell of a game,” not once but twice. Then Crabtree pushes him, cause I refuse to call that a punch, in the face.

It looks like Sherman was extending some kind of sportsmanship towards Crabtree who was in reality the poor sport. Of course that is assuming it was sincere on Sherman’s part, it could’ve been a “hell of a game” because he didn’t have that impressive of a game catching four passes for 52 yards and no touchdowns.

There isn’t anything else in the video to suggest Sherman wasn’t be sincere. Looks like his only fault was being upset about extending a friendly gesture only to have Crabtree act like a jerk.

To see the video, check out the clip on Deadspin.