Richard Sherman and Michael Crabtree had a history before they squared off in last Sunday’s NFC Championship Game, but the details about how exactly their ongoing dispute got started are unclear.
First, it was reported that Crabtree tried to fight Sherman at a charity event in Arizona after refusing to shake the Seattle Seahawks cornerback’s hand. A report by NJ.com’s Dom Constantino on Tuesday, however, contended that it was actually Sherman who initiated the conflict.
“The handshake part is legit,” Constantino’s source said, “but it was Sherman who tried to start the fight with Crabtree. I remember ’cause Sherman kept getting in his face and Crabtree was just laughing about it.”
The original report by The Seattle Times cited Sherman’s older brother, Branton, while the NJ.com source was described as a person with “no familial or professional relationship to Sherman or Crabtree.”
Sherman briefly mentioned the incident in his column on TheMMQB.com on Monday, but he did not discuss it in detail.
“It goes back to something [Crabtree] said to me this offseason in Arizona,” Sherman wrote, “but you’d have to ask him about that.”
Sherman tipped away a pass intended for Crabtree in the final minute on Sunday, sealing a 23-17 win and sending the Seahawks to the Super Bowl. He went off on the San Francisco 49ers receiver minutes later in an interview with FOX Sports’ Erin Andrews, a rant that has since come under great scrutiny.
Photo via Facebook/Seattle Seahawks from B/R
