Peyton Manning Tipped His Play-Calls In Super Bowl, Richard Sherman Says
Peyton Manning himself appeared baffled throughout Sunday’s Super Bowl, about how the Seattle Seahawks’ defense managed to shut down pretty much every tactic he tried. But he need be baffled no longer. Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman has spilled his team’s secret.
Sherman said that Peyton Manning was tipping his play-calling signals. And Seattle’s defenders figured out his secret signs.
“We knew what route concepts they liked on different downs, so we jumped all the routes,” Sherman said to the Monday Morning Quarterback online football site. “Then we figured out the hand signals for a few of the route audibles in the first half.”
To be clear, Richard Sherman is not saying that the Seahawks did anything illegal. There’s nothing in the rules saying that players cannot try to figure out their opponents’ signals — as long as they’re doing it with their own eyes and brains, not with any technological enhancement.
“Me, Earl [Thomas], Kam [Chancellor], we’re not just three All-Pro players. We’re three All-Pro minds,” Ricard Sherman told the Sports Illustrated-affliated site.
But Sherman had some advice for Peyton Manning as well. He says that Manning, a sure-fire Hall of Famer and certainly one of the greatest quarterbacks ever to play the game, needed to get more creative in varying the passing routes of his receivers.
“Now, if Peyton had thrown in some double moves, if he had gone out of character, we could’ve been exposed,” Sherman admitted.
Defeated Denver Broncos Coach John Fox told The Denver Post that he found Sherman’s scenario plausible. But he didn’t place any blame on Peyton Manning.
“You know, it looked like it,” Fox said, asked if he believed Sherman’s claims of stealing signs. “But I think it’s more they have very good players. I don’t know that there are any mystery things. I think it was more about them executing and playing very well than any other stuff.”
It should also be made clear that Richard Sherman was not gloating. After the game he tweeted about his respect for Peyton Manning.
Peyton is the Classiest person/player I have ever met! I could learn so much from him! Thank you for being a great Competitor and person
— Richard Sherman (@RSherman_25) February 3, 2014
Richard Sherman said that immediately following the game, Peyton Manning sought him out to ask how he was feeling after the defender suffered a sprained ankle during the Super Bowl.
