Richard Sherman‘s emotional postgame interview with Erin Andrews after the Seattle Seahawks beat the San Francisco 49ers in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game ended a bit early.
Now we know why.
“I saw a train coming down the tracks,” FOX Sports producer Richie Zyont said Thursday, per Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated. “It was compelling television. And like Joe [Buck] had mentioned earlier [during the conference call], we kind of had a preview of that in our production meeting [with Sherman]. It started crossing over a line that I did not want to see us go. Erin handled it very well, but I kind of said, ‘Let’s end this thing.’ He’s a good guy, an intelligent guy, an emotional guy, and it was very compelling to watch. But it started getting a little dangerous for us.”
Sherman was confused by the decision and couldn’t find any reason to label the interview as dangerous when asked about it Thursday.
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Sherman made some strong comments about 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree during his interview with Andrews — calling him a “sorry receiver” — but he didn’t say anything awful. However, the Seattle cornerback apologized for his postgame comments Monday, telling ESPN’s Ed Werder that he did not intend to take attention away from the team.
Deitsch also tweeted that Andrews will be working FOX’s broadcast of Super Bowl XLVIII between the Seahawks and Broncos on Feb. 2, but she will be on the Denver sideline. She did, however, interview Sherman for a pregame piece this week.
