Crucial Context

Yes, yes, I could have done without the level of taunting after Richard Sherman made the play of the game (although the level of pearl-clutching about the interview is really a little much) — as a commenter noted, he probably earned a little too much from his college coach in this respect. But it’s also worth noting that this wasn’t just some random issue [via]:

Sherman has been upset with Crabtree since last summer. Both attended Arizona star receiver Larry Fitzgerald’s charity event. While there, Sherman went to shake Crabtree’s hand, and Crabtree tried to start a fight, according to Sherman’s older brother, Branton.

“I’m going to make a play and embarrass him,” Richard Sherman vowed that day.

And Crabtree was talking before the game too. As friend of LGM J.S. observes, “I think what gets lost in this is that Crabtree dishes it out but can’t take it. There is nothing more insufferable than that.”

Perhaps this subset of 49er fans can go back to whining about how replay revealed that on a technical application of the rules incidental contact with the punter would have justified a 15-yead penalty. Clearly that, and not failing to get off the field after a 3rd-and-22 and 4th-and-7 in the 4th quarter is why San Fransisco lost! Nobody has ever had to overcome a call of that magnitude in the NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE! (Except for the 49ers, who did thankfully overcome a genuinely horrible and high-impact call as opposed to this picayune crap later.)