Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman isn't one to bite his tongue, especially when it comes to criticizing "The Shield." Sherman recently posted a video on The Player's Tribune condemning the NFL for the way they handled the Cam Newton abuse in Week 1, saying players don't have any reason to trust the NFL.
As transcribed by ESPN:
"It’s hard to stress player safety in such a violent game because at the end of the day, ratings sell, people want to buy tickets, people are going to come to games regardless," Sherman said. "Now does the league care when Cam Newton gets hit in the face five times and pretty much knocked out of the game? And they have all these spotters and people that watch the game specifically for these reasons, and you see the guy on his hands and knees shaking his head after he just took a shot to the face. And they’re saying they didn’t see any indications that he needed to come out of the game."
Sherman believes the league didn't protect Cam's safety by letting him continue to play, rather than pulling him to the sidelines for further evaluation as is league protocol. By letting Cam stay on the field it showed that the league is a "bottom line business," and that the NFL only truly cares about ratings and not player safety.
That's not to say Cam, or any other player, would willingly come off the field in that situation, but it goes against everything that the NFL has said in regards to player safety.
"If you can increase their bottom line, then they’ll love you. They’ll do everything they can to put you out more, to market you, to make sure the fans buy your jersey, to put your jersey out because it makes them more money. If you’re not making them money, then at the end of the day, they’re going to find somebody else."
He went on to say, "We really don’t have reason to trust the NFL, and I don’t think they mind either way." "That’s the relationship we have with the league. They’re going to use us until our time is up, and then they’re going to find somebody else."
