Sherman continues to play on the edge

While Sherman has matured over the years, there’s still a jagged edge to his persona. It crept to the surface when he butted heads with a reporter because he didn’t like her line of questioning.

“She came at me thinking that she had a point and thinking she has something and when you make a more valid point …,” Sherman huffed. “You can’t be casual and the come at me with an attack. I reciprocated.”

It’s never cut and dried with Sherman, the scholar from Compton, Calif., who graduated from Stanford. It’s a blend. He has layers. He’s a complex football figure.

“He’s an extraordinary guy,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said. “He’s got a great mind. He’s bright; he’s sharp. He’s got wit; he’s got creativity to him, which is really what his game is like as well.”

After playing at Stanford, Sherman was selected 154th overall in the fifth round of the NFL draft in 2011. He made the Pro Football Writers of America’s All-Rookie team and has been a three-time All-Pro selection.

He credits former Seattle cornerback Marcus Trufant, the older brother of Falcons cornerback Desmond Trufant, with pointing him in the right direction in the NFL.

“He was the consummate professional,” Sherman said. “He did a great job of showing me the ropes.”

With a simple approach, Sherman has made that climb to All-Pro status, rattling more than a few cages along the way.

“You just have to be focused on the things that you can control,” Sherman said. “That was one of his biggest messages (Trufant) passed on. I took it to heart. That’s what I focus on, the things I can control and everything else I let fall by the wayside.”

He first came on the national scene after the Seahawks beat New England back in 2012. He jumped in Tom Brady’s face and taunted him after the game. He tweeted “You mad bro” before deleting it.

Sherman now contends that he was just answering Brady’s in-game chattering about how bad the Seahawks were.

Last season, he went on a rant after the NFC Championship game when Fox Sports’ Erin Andrews interviewed him. There was a vicious backlash to the emotionally raw postgame mock on San Francisco wide receiver Michael Crabtree.

“I can’t control people’s opinions, or people’s health or people’s criticisms,” Sherman said. “But I can control the way I play and how I approach the game.”

He gets some of his swagger from the original sports swag-master.

“Muhammad Ali is my favorite athlete of all time,” Sherman said. “I’m a huge Muhammad Ali fan and for what he stood for.”

(For the record, the big boxing fan is going with Floyd Mayweather over Mann Pacquiao if the fight ever happens. “It should be a good fight,” Sherman said.)

Perhaps Sherman was channeling the spirit of Ali in the NFC Championship game against Green Bay when he wouldn’t leave the field with a badly sprained elbow. He clutched his elbow tightly to his chest during the late stages of the Seahawks’ improbable comeback.

He said the elbow is improving and that he’ll be ready for his rematch with Brady.

Sherman was not ticked at New England cornerback Brandon Browner suggesting that the Patriots should injure his elbow.

“Brandon is a friend of mine,” Sherman said. “I don’t think he meant any real malice from that. He’s said some crazier things and has exaggerated even more than that from time to time. He’s a great friend, and I didn’t take any offense to that.”

The Seahawks don’t know how Sherman finished the game.

“It demonstrated the competitor that he is,” Carroll said. “He’s a great competitor. All of that is fueled by his competitiveness.

“He has these qualities, but if he wasn’t this ferocious competitor that he is, those wouldn’t be brought to light so often. He’s got torn ligaments in his elbow, and he played football. He’s going to play again.”

He’s problem going to tick someone off again, too.