Sherman on Jim Harbaugh: There’s bad blood there. There’s history

San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman met with the media Thursday after practice. He discussed returning to Seattle, playing against Marshawn Lynch, and former 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh.

Sherman was asked if his preparation would change now that the Seahawks have his former teammate Marshawn Lynch:

I don’t worry about it. We’re going to defend who they put out there. We don’t worry about who they bring in, we’ll worry about who they put in when they put him in, and we’ll go out there and execute and get it done. I don’t think about it either way, honestly. If they brought in a quarterback off the couch, it wouldn’t change anything for me. We’re going to go out there and execute the game plan and try to get it done.

Mark covered how much juice Lynch has left on Thursday. It’s tough to know how effective a player who hasn’t played in an NFL game in over a year will be. I think what Lynch brings to the table that any other back signed off the street lacks pass protection. I doubt he forgot how to pick up the blitz. Lynch was always known for his stellar awareness in the backfield.

Bad blood

Earlier this season, Sherman told NBC Sports Matt Maiocco that his relationship with former Niners head coach Jim Harbaugh soured when Sherman’s knee surgery ended his 2008 season at Stanford. On Christmas Eve in 2012, then Yahoo! Sports writer Michael Silver wrote that Sherman and then Seahawks safety Early Thomas told him that Harbaugh drove by the Seahawks’ team bus in the Candlestick Park parking lot following a Niners 13-6 win in October and mockingly saluted the road team.

“He honked his horn at the bus and waved,” said Sherman, who did not witness the incident. “That happened — a bunch of the guys told me. Yeah, he was [honking].”

Said Thomas, noting that Harbaugh turned 49 on Sunday: “Happy birthday — that’s what you get. Yeah, he [honked at us]. It seems like he tries to be a professional in front of the camera, but he does his antics, like that, when the cameras aren’t around. He’s just a big kid. We don’t worry about that stuff. We just play the game. The best team won [Sunday], and it was convincing.”

Harbaugh poked fun at the Seahawks in 2013 for their PED suspensions. Sherman, who won his appeal after a four-game suspension, didn’t forget. Here is a minute clip from Mercury Sports Cam Inman:

“I meant it to Harbaugh,” Sherman said. “We’ve had our history. I don’t regret a second of that. I’d do it again, twice, maybe more. If he were their coach and we were in the same position, it would maybe be worse right now. There’s bad blood there. There’s history there. It was very personal. It was less 49ers and Seahawks. It was very personal.”

When asked if his feelings towards the Seahawks organization for releasing Sherman as he was rehabbing from a torn Achilles, Sherman said: “Much, much different circumstances,” Sherman said, comparing the feelings he has for the Seahawks to his past with Harbaugh. “Our history goes way more personal than football.”