Sherman: We’re willing to do whatever it takes because we’re willing to win

Richard Sherman and Jimmy Garoppolo just finished talking to the media. There wasn’t any groundbreaking news, but it’s still nice to get closer to football. The best part of the past hour was when Grant Cohn asked Jimmy G a question, and Matt Maiocco followed up with, “some people” question your game. That was perfect.

Sherman said the theme this season was to “elevate.” I asked him what he meant by that, and if the players in the locker room have that same type of ownership:

There’s just an accountability. There’s a brotherhood aspect of this team, and that’s something that isn’t talked about enough. There’s a chemistry. There’s a want to. Getting better and wanting to elevate is something that’s inside of you, or it’s not. Some guys play this game and say, “Hey, I just want to make a lot of money; I don’t care about winning.” On a winning team, you can’t have a lot of those players because you want to be successful. We have a lot of unselfish guys that want to do whatever it takes to help this team win.

That’s on both sides of the ball, from Jimmy down to the last practice squad guy. On defense, it’s the same way. We have a lot of unselfish guys with similar mental makeup. Trent, being one of them, are built the same way. A lot of the rookies are built the same way. When you got a lot of guys like that, it makes you a hard team to beat because everyone is willing to do whatever it takes to win.

It’s not, ‘hey, I’m not willing to do this, because it’s not good for me.’ We’re willing to do whatever it takes because we’re willing to win. If that means a receiver blocking. Shoot, I saw Jimmy pancake a guy last year. It’s guys that are willing to go to places other people aren’t willing to go to in order to win a ball game.

The majority of the questions were COVID/protocol related, and it’s evident that the players don’t care to talk about that. Sherman said there was never any discussion about him opting out. He also said he feels as safe in the facility as he does when he’s out and about in society. “Once you get through all the hoops and protocols, football is football, as you know it. This is in place to make sure the season goes on. There has been a lot of chatter about baseball, but I think it’s been fine.”

Sherman named roughly every city in the US west of the Mississippi that would stand as a bigger distraction than Santa Clara. He’s not worried about the team being distracted and said the team that adapts the best would hold a trophy at the end. “Our team is incredibly focused because of how close we were to winning the Super Bowl last year, and that bitter taste in your mouth is discipline enough.”

Sherman said there was no safe outcome to having a preseason, but also acknowledged there wasn’t much of a change for a veteran like himself.