Why the nice city of Seattle adores trash-talking Richard Sherman

I was introduced to “Seattle nice” when I moved here from California (gasp!) in the late 90s. I was driving downtown, and the Range Rover in front of me stopped cold in the middle of the street to ask a parking enforcement officer a question.

I honked. Several times.

The officer promptly marched right up to my car, and I preemptively asked, “What did I do wrong?”

She proclaimed, “You’re NOT BEING NICE!”

So why is a city so obsessed with being nice in love with Seahawks trash-talker Richard Sherman?  Even as much – or more – than one of the nicest quarterbacks on the planet, Russell Wilson?

Let’s start with Seattle’s dismal sports history. Only one of our pro sports teams has ever won a national championship: the Seattle Sonics, which were stolen away to Oklahoma. The Mariners set league records in 2001, only to succumb to the Yankees in the playoffs. The Seahawks made it to the Super Bowl once in 2006, but were overcome by the Steelers and the refs.

This history becomes only more painful when the national media piled on the disrespect. When the Hawks first went to the Super Bowl, one analyst cracked that Seattle is in “southeastern Alaska.“  The national media coverage focused entirely on the Steelers – I remember vividly, because I covered the Super Bowl for KING TV – and the tradition continued for years to come.

Microsoft is mocked.  Amazon is in “Silicon Valley.”  The Gates Foundation, which is saving millions of lives, gets less press than Twitter.

For Richard Sherman, it got under his skin. “I think we’ll enter next season as we did this season: As a bunch of nobodies, a bunch of no-name players,” Richard Sherman said a year ago. “I think we’re gonna end up being one of those teams that, once again, flies under the radar because we’re in Seattle.”

But as the season began, Seattle started to get respect. Sherman’s trash-talking on national TV – challenging the East Coast in his own bizarre way to give us the respect we deserve – seemingly began to work.  Sure, the Seahawks are an incredible team this year, but we’ve seen incredible teams in our city before.  This time was different, and Sherman was at the megaphone.

That’s why Seattle loves it when Sherman loses it. The city enjoys being the underdog, but not an outcast.  And now everyone can hear us.