Richard Sherman announced yesterday the possibility of his girlfriend, Ashley Moss, delivering their first child, a son, on Sunday (during the Super Bowl). Sherman noted the scenario as being extremely unlikely, but however indicated an openness to missing the Super Bowl in the event of the unlikely scenario, which sparked a national debate over the matter. Most people seemingly feeling as though he should miss the Super Bowl if this scenario were to unfold.
This is wrong. He should play.
This has NOTHING to do with putting Football above life, please stop saying that. It’s drivel and largely a reflection of a sappy, spoiled society. At near $60 million, Richard Sherman is the league’s highest paid player at his position. He is there for only one reason, to help his team win Super Bowls. By most accounts, he is the best player on his team. This isn’t a regular season game, nor is it a practice or a media obligation, it’s the return on investment. Winning Super Bowls is why he is there, we aren’t talking about a practice squad player, we are talking about a highly paid player that’s only job comes this Sunday.
The Seattle Seahawks full fill their obligation by paying out a weekly check, a weekly payout that more than accommodates his future son and current girlfriend’s life aspirations.
Stop pretending that him being in the delivery room is some qualitative passage of parenthood. I have no idea if my dad was in the delivery room, I think most likely he wasn’t seeing my age, and I think things are just fine. Men aren’t in delivery rooms all the time, aka serving military men for starters. We live in a society that tends to attach singular moments in time to greater meaning than they deserve. Someone votes, announces the moment on social media as if they are a philanthropist winning the Nobel Prize, then they go on to do absolutely nothing good for the remainder of time. Being in the delivery room isn’t the essence of parenthood, being there for your child for a lifetime provides that and nothing helps that situation more than having $60 million. Nothing is more indicative of good parenting than serving as a role model and showing your kid that you and your mother fulfill obligations and work hard (one day this kid will know). If I found out today that my dad missed the Super Bowl, I’d harbor a ton of regret.
There is a lot of bad parenting out there and absolutely none of that lethargy and carelessness has anything to do with being in a delivery room. For Sherman and his girlfriend, making the decision to fulfill an obligation is a huge step that indicates maturity. It’s not indicative of being bad parents or not caring about special moments. No one is saying that Sherman should put his career above every parenting opportunity, instead, what’s being asked is for 1 month a year to fulfill obligations.
We aren’t talking about a family death on the day of the Super Bowl, we are talking about his girlfriend potentially having a baby underneath the best medical staff in Seattle. We aren’t talking about one regular season game or the Pro Bowl. It’s the Super Bowl. It’s what he is paid to do. Being there shows character in both he and his girlfriend. Leaving your teammates who depend on you, the organization that pays you, wouldn’t be right under the given hypotheticals. And this is a hypothetical as Sherman has never indicated one way or the other what he’d do.
