Richard Sherman was ‘awful’ when he first moved to cornerback

JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- There’s a theory that the farther an offensive player is from the football at the line of scrimmage, the more demonstrative and flamboyant he tends to be.

By that thinking, wide receivers tend to be more talkative than tight ends. Tight ends talk more trash than tackles, and so on.

So it’s not shocking that Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman began his career at Stanford as a receiver. He was a freshman All-American, in fact, and might have continued his career on that side of the ball but for a knee injury. After recuperating, he switched to cornerback and played his final two college seasons there.

Seahawks receiver Doug Baldwin was a Stanford teammate, and said Sherman’s transition to defense wasn’t seamless.

“To be honest, when he first switched over, he was awful, he was terrible,” Baldwin said. “He couldn’t backpedal, he couldn’t track the ball, and he didn’t really try to quick jam, because he would get lost at the line of scrimmage.

“We had wonderful coaches at Stanford; they kind of honed in his skills, made him focus more on the details, and then when he got here, he kind of blossomed into amazing defensive back that he is now. He never in his mind had doubt that he would be one of the greatest. He’s always said that he was going to be one of the greatest whether he was going to be a receiver or a defensive back. I had no doubt in him as well, because I know how hard he works.”

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