Richard Sherman opens up about defecting to 49ers

SANTA CLARA — Richard Sherman spoke Monday for the first time as a Seahawks-turned-49ers loudspeaker.

While a poor connection with background noise garbled the media conference call, Sherman voiced no frustration. Instead he offered explanatory and pensive answers, from extolling the virtues of Jimmy Garoppolo to meaning no disrespect for a Thanksgiving 2014 turkey dinner on the 50-yard line after humiliating the host 49ers.

“(NBC producers) were like, ‘Eat the turkey,’ ” Sherman recalled. “You’re excited after the game. You’re winning. We weren’t thinking anything else. Honestly we were just enjoying the moment. We played pretty well that game.

“I honestly didn’t think it was disrespectful. But people can take it any way they want to.”

His decibels may never roar as high as after he ruined the 2013 49ers’ Super Bowl hopes in Seattle. And he’s more articulate and poignant than people realize, or perhaps more than 49ers fans were willing to accept the past seven years.

So when Sherman speaks, people listen, and that is something the 49ers will have to adjust to in a locker room that grew admirably tight amid last season’s adversity (0-9 start) and eventual triumph (5-0 finish).

Garoppolo fueled that closing act, and with him locked in last month on a NFL-record contract, his presence helped lure Sherman,

“That had a huge part. The way he played down the stretch was inspiring, it was incredible,” Sherman said. “Sometimes quarterbacks can get hot and the next year fall off the face of the Earth and you do not hear from them again.

“What I saw from him was poise, I saw leadership, I saw the respect from his teammates, and I saw a command of the offense, and he’d only been there a few weeks.”

Sherman saw more to the 49ers than Garoppolo. He’s familiar with the defensive scheme and the coordinator running it, Robert Saleh, a former Seahawks assistant who joined Sherman, Sherman’s fiancee Ashley and coach Kyle Shanahan at Friday night’s recruitment dinner in Los Gatos.

As much as he raved about Shanahan’s coaching credentials and a familiarity general manager John Lynch (fellow Stanford graduate), Sherman wanted to keep his family on the West Coast, and he did not ignore his desire to take on the Seahawks twice a year.

“It definitely had a part of it. I enjoyed the city of Seattle and the fans there. I have love and appreciation for the years I spent there,” Sherman said. “I’m going to try my best to ruin their day. I want a chance to show what I can do.”

Released Friday with a failed physical designation, Sherman met only with the 49ers, and after hammering out his own deal over a five-hour session with contract czar Paraag Marathe, Sherman gave the Seahawks a chance to match it, and he also gauged the interest of the Raiders and Detroit Lions.

Sherman said of his call to Seahawks general manager John Schneider: “They said they wouldn’t be able to match that and he thought it was a solid deal. He though there was some things I could do with roster bonuses. But I felt comfortable with being able to achieve that.”

Sherman agreed to the incentive-laden deal on Saturday and signed that contract Sunday. It gives him only a $3 million signing bonus, but another $2 million if he’s medically cleared come training camp as well as a $2 million base salary for 2018. Incentives and bonuses could push the deal to $39 million, but only if he reverts to All-Pro form.

Cornerback Richard Sherman #25 of the Seattle Seahawks celebrates after making an interception in the second half against the San Francisco 49ers at CenturyLink Field on September 15, 2013 in Seattle, Washington. The Seahawks defeated the 49ers 29-3. (Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)

“It’s a little odd to put on a different jersey in general,” Sherman began. “It will take some getting used to for me. I spent a lot of time wearing a red (Stanford) jersey in the Bay, so I’m sure I’ll figure it out.”

No one knows for sure how healthy Sherman can come back from last November’s right Achilles tear, plus a procedure earlier this year to remove bone spurs from his left ankle.

No one knows for sure how Sherman’s voice will represent this new era of 49ers football. Will he be an egotistical loudmouth or a sage voice of reason, or a perfect blend of both, or just a humbled customer in the 2018 drive-through lane?

Sherman at least brings swagger to a 49ers franchise filled with promising but mostly humble and low-key stars. Garoppolo and defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, cornerstones for the 49ers’ future, are not microphone MVPs, nor is that required.

This franchise just emerged from a maelstrom of distracting noise, starting with the echoes of Sherman’s vociferous taunts after the 2013 season’s NFC Championship Game.

In 2014, Jim Harbaugh’s forced exit loomed like a dark cloud. In 2015, there was Jim Tomsula’s trainwreck of a promotion, Colin Kaepernick’s benching-then-surgery, and Australian ambassador Jarryd Hayne’s rugby-to-NFL experiment. In 2016, Kaepernick led others to kneel for the national anthem before he and Chip Kelly were jettisoned from the NFL.

Playing the Seahawks twice this season might give Sherman a taste of vengeance he craves. That leaves 14 other games, however, for him to make a deeper impact for a 49ers franchise he’s tormented as their hated rival since 2011.

It was that 2011-14 fight for NFC West — heck, NFL — supremacy where Sherman burst onto the NFL stage as not just a 49ers adversary but a defining symbol of a defensive-minded division.

That NFC West certainly has evolved, and while the Seahawks appear in deconstruction mode, Sherman is embracing other drastic changes to a division now championed by the Rams, who acquired their veteran cornerbacks themselves in trading for Aqib Talib and Marcus Peters.

“This division has gotten a lot better over the last year or so. And it’s cool, just in terms of the coaching and the innovativeness of the offense,” Sherman said. “We’ve always been more of a defensive conference, and I think that’s changing with the influx of quarterback play and innovative offenses.”

“Kyle is one of the most creative and innovative offensive minds in football — he and (Rams coach) Sean McVay, and I told him as much,” Sherman said. “He’s always coming up with two or three concepts that we’d never seen. And we really had no answer for outside of some real bastardizations of our defense.

“And that’s on the field, spur-of-the-moment, having three or four All-Pro players who can adjust on the fly. Outside of that, some of these concepts were freaking dang tough to stop.”

Stanford's Richard Sherman talks up the crowd after making an interception in the first quarter at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif. on Saturday, November 20, 2010. The Stanford Cardinal played the Cal Bears. (Jim Gensheimer/Mercury News) — Stanford’s Richard Sherman talks up the crowd after making an interception in the first quarter at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif. on Saturday, November 20, 2010. The Stanford Cardinal played the Cal Bears. (Jim Gensheimer/Mercury News)

Sherman’s ability to mentor a young secondary is a key component to his arrival. He spoke so highly of Ahkello Witherspoon, the 49ers’ other projected starting cornerback, that Sherman claimed: “He’s going to be a star.”

Sherman became a star with his aggressive coverage and nabbing the league’s most interceptions since 2011, albeit only two last season in nine games before his Achilles injury.

Sherman knows what he’s getting into, both on the 49ers and in the Bay Area. He’s come a long way since his days as a receiver-turned-cornerback at Stanford. And he’s as ambitious as ever.

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