Richard Sherman (Seahawks de Seattle) et la culture du "trash talk": "Don't you ever talk about me"

À la fin du match de dimanche dernier opposant les Seahawks de Seattle aux 49ers de San Francisco, le joueur défensif Richard Sherman des Seahawks est interrogé par une journaliste sur le dernier jeu important dont il est l'auteur. Sherman, très émotif, ne répond à peu près pas à la question, il affirme plutôt qu'il est le meilleur joueur à sa position et que son opposant est médiocre. La tirade enflamme ensuite les médias sociaux et Sherman recevra plusieurs messages racistes. Sa déclaration était-elle à ce point déplacée? Sherman n' a pas été vulgaire et il n'a menacé personne... L'auteur de cet article croit plutôt que les commanditaires enseignent maintenant aux joueurs à utiliser des clichés dans des réponses préparées à l'avance pour éviter la controverse. Nous sommes loin de l'arrogance d'un Ali qui n'hésitait pas à "évaluer" ses adversaires en conférence de presse ou à lancer un retentissant: "I'm the greatest"!

 "Another reason Sherman’s 20 seconds seemed so striking is that American athletes once were known for boasting: Think of Mohammad Ali when he was the young Cassius Clay. But in today’s corporate-controlled sports world, image consultants discourage such behavior. Each summer, NFL players are put through media role-play sessions in which consultants imitating reporters ask edgy questions, and players learn to demur. Those whose instinct is to shout, “I am the best!” instead learn to say in even tones, “Our opponents are a fine, fine football team.”

 The next factor was that Sherman was intensely emotional—and nearly all of what’s on television is so cool-to-the-touch that his emotion jumped out. (Actual emotion is key to the appeal of “American Idol” and its many imitators.) While football is being played, emotion flows; the instance the game ends, normally cool is restored. Most NFL players’ postgame statements are so corporate-bland that we would have expected Sherman to say, “Erin, Crabtree is a great competitor. It’s an honor to play against him. He ran a stutter fade and I took inside position to force Colin Kaepernick to throw the ball over me. Fortunately I was able to knock it down. I’m deeply humbled by this moment, and would like to thank my teammates, coaches and elementary school teachers.” Instead, Sherman went off script.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/richard-sherman-nfl-trash-talk-102431.html?hp=pm_2#.Ut_GmhBxy1s