The voice of the Legion of Boom is walking away from football -- for now.
Richard Sherman told ¹ú²úÍâÁ÷ÍøNetwork's Steve Wyche on Tuesday that he is joining Amazon Prime Video's Thursday Night Football coverage this season. However, the 34-year-old veteran cornerback didn't rule out a potential return to the game, putting off retirement for the moment.
"No, no, I'm still leaving that door open as long as I can," Sherman told Wyche. "I'm obviously going to keep training and staying in shape, but gotta take the opportunities when they're there, and this is an amazing opportunity with Amazon, so I couldn't pass it up.
"But I'm going to leave that door open, if somebody wants to call late December, and needs some help, I'm happy to help."
Sherman will work on Amazon Prime Video's pregame, halftime and postgame shows on Thursday nights, joining Hall of Fame tight end Tony Gonzalez, Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit as notable names to headline the streamer's first season of TNF coverage.
"I feel like it's important for players to continue to push the game forward and educate the fans through real experience and real intellect and trying to take them even deeper into the game," Sherman said, explaining his decision to go into broadcasting. "I think you try to simplify it as much as you can for them, but I think the more informed and educated the fans are, the better the experience is. You want to help them understand their team, understand why this touchdown happened, understand why this big run happened, understand why this interception happened, and I think I can do that."
Sherman enters the next stage of his career with quite a legacy. A five-time Pro Bowler and three-time first-team All-Pro selection, Sherman blossomed into a shutdown cornerback just as his Seattle Seahawks rose to prominence in the earlier half of the last decade. The former fifth-round pick from Stanford was an essential part of a stifling Seattle defense that helped the Seahawks make consecutive Super Bowl appearances in the 2013 and 2014 seasons, winning Super Bowl XLVIII in a stunning, dominant performance against the high-powered Denver Broncos.
Sherman, Russell Wilson, Marshawn Lynch and the Legion of Boom made it back to the grand stage a year later, but fell in heartbreaking (and still to this day, perplexing) fashion to Tom Brady's New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX. They'd never reach the game's greatest stage again, but thanks to the contributions of the aforementioned trio and many others (Bobby Wagner, Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas, etc.), Seattle remained a power in the ¹ú²úÍâÁ÷Íøfor the rest of the decade.
As often happens in the NFL, Sherman's career in Seattle came to an abrupt end following the 2017 season when he was released by the Seahawks in a cost-saving move. He wasn't unemployed for long, signing a three-year, $39 million deal with San Francisco one day after he was released by Seattle. Sherman helped lead the 49ers to an appearance in Super Bowl LIV in 2019 and played out his contract in San Francisco before joining the defending champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers early in the 2021 season. He played five games for the Buccaneers before ending the campaign -- his 11th in the league -- on injured reserve in January.
If the departures this offseason of Wilson and Wagner weren't enough, Sherman's move to broadcasting confirms the end of a legendary era in Seattle. Sherman hasn't suited up for the Seahawks since 2017, but he was one of the faces of the franchise in its greatest moments -- so much that he even graced the cover of Madden ¹ú²úÍâÁ÷Íø15 -- and his pivot to Amazon Prime Video brings a close to that glorious time in the Pacific Northwest, if not his career.
"I've got something in the tank," Sherman said. "But right now I'm excited and focused on this Amazon opportunity. It's the first time you get to talk the game, get to feel the atmosphere. Thursday nights have always been exciting, obviously I haven't always been a fan of them, I'm excited to call from this side."
