Richard Sherman All Worked Up Over Baker Mayfield's Breach of Etiquette During Coin Toss
By Liam McKeone | Oct 08 2019
The San Francisco 49ers took the Cleveland Browns to task on Monday night, dominating on both sides of the ball en route to a breezy 31-3 win. In case you hadn't heard, the Browns are a rather outspoken group of players, and their early-season struggles have opened them up to a hefty amount of criticism-- some deserved, some not.
In unsurprising news, Richard Sherman also has a bone to pick with these Browns. While speaking to reporters after the game, he expressed his displeasure at Baker Mayfield for not shaking hands prior to the pregame warmup.
#49ers CB @RSherman_25 justifiably went hard at Baker Mayfield for lack of respect to the game after he refused to shake hands during the pre-game coin toss [via @ProFootballTalk]
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) October 8, 2019
It took Richard Sherman only 2 minutes into the game starting to pick off Baker in a 31-3 win. pic.twitter.com/Pi8LH4SxiD
As noted in the tweet, Sherman got the last laugh with both an interception and a blowout victory. NFL players, and professional athletes as a whole, are constantly looking for motivation, and something like not shaking hands before the coin toss is more than enough to get guys fired up and feeling disrespected.
But this also seems like... not that big of a deal? Sportsmanship is important and all that, but we're all adults here. A neglected postgame handshake? Sure. Nobody likes a poor loser. But they literally don't even televise coin tosses anymore. It's not that deep.
Again, whatever it takes to keep Sherman locked in and motivated, but using a pregame handshake, or lack thereof, as the springboard for Mayfield criticism seems like a stretch.