Seahawks March to Super Bowl: Richard Sherman Meets Gen. Sherman

The Hawks have been tearing through other teams as if on their own “March to the Sea”

By Seattle Mag January 12, 2015

In this bi-monthly Seattlemag.com column, Knute Berger–who writes regularly for Seattle Magazine and Crosscut.com and is a frequent pundit on KUOW–takes an in-depth look at some of the highly topical and sometimes polarizing issues in our city.

It’s possible to take this comparison too far, but with the Seahawks marching to the NFC Championship game at CenturyLink Field this weekend, I can’t help but find parallels between Richard Sherman and William Tecumseh Sherman.

The Hawks have been tearing through other teams as if on their own “March to the Sea,” and the spokesman for the Legion of Boom has a few of things in common with the famous Union general.

Both Shermans have often been in trouble with the press, saying things that caused some to suggest they were crazy. You’ll remember that Richard Sherman’s outburst last season to a sideline reporter after defeating the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship caused commentators to question his stability. Buzzfeed referred to it as his “insane post-game interview.” Gen. Sherman had a breakdown during the war that caused the Northern press to declare him “insane.” Neither was nuts, and went on to 1) win a Super Bowl and 2) win the Civil War.

Both began their careers in the Bay Area—Richard played college ball for Stanford University and W.T. Sherman’s first major assignment was to keep civic order in San Francisco during the Gold Rush. Both were comfortable as good field commanders who were also capable of carrying out the wishes of their respective bosses, Pete Carroll and Gen. U. S. Grant.

But the thing that really stands out is their style of combat. The Seahawks play hard—very hard. And their purpose is not only to win with skill, but to break the will of their opponents. After last Saturday’s victory over the Carolina Panthers (and let’s remember also that almost exactly 150 years ago, March of 1865, Gen. Sherman successfully invaded North Carolina), Richard Sherman described the incredible play of his Legion of Boom compatriot Kam Chancellor: “Kam Chancellor damages people’s souls.” Richard Sherman and the Seahawks set out to sap their enemy’s morale.

That is the same strategy Gen. Sherman employed on his famous romp through the South, which was designed to do mostly physical damage, not take lives. But it was also a psychological operation. As one of Gen. Sherman’s subordinates described it, the purpose of their march through Georgia was to “produce among the people of Georgia a thorough conviction of the personal misery which attends war, and the utter helplessness and inability of their ‘rulers’ to protect them….”

Substitute “the people of Green Bay,” for Georgia, “game” for “war,” and “coaches” for “rulers,” and you have insight into the Seahawks game plan for the big game this Sunday.