Richard Sherman trashes Seahawks over recent Bobby Wagner move

The Seattle Seahawks lost Bobby Wagner to the Washington Commanders in free agency. This will mark the second time Wagner has left Seattle to play for another team. In 2022, Seattle released Wagner and he played the next season with the Los Angeles Rams. This offseason, Wagner's contract was up but Seattle appeared to not make much of an effort to re-sign him.

This is where Richard Sherman comes in. Of course, Sherman gets paid to speak his mind and do so forcefully. He is a smart guy and he is good at his job. But like every talking head, sometimes Sherman goes a bit beyond the pale.

That said, he does have a point about Seattle and Wagner. On a recent episode of the Richard Sherman Podcast, Sherman said that the Seahawks "owed" it to Wagner to keep him from leaving again. The point was that while teams imply players should be loyal, teams in return do not act as if they must be loyal to a player.

Richard Sherman blasts the Seattle Seahawks for being disloyal

Bobby Wagner is one of the best players in Seattle football history. He is a future Hall of Famer and will have played most of his time in a Seahawks uniform. He will likely be - and should be - beloved by 12s for eternity.

Sherman said about Wagner not being re-signed, "(Seattle) made the mistake the first time. He should never leave (the Seahawks) again and John Schneider knows that. We've had this conversation. This is ridiculous...(Wagner) is not asking for a ton of money...You don't let him leave the building again. (Seattle owes) him that."

As much as I agree with Sherman that loyalty should work both ways, the argument forgets the main point. That is the NFL is a business. Sherman later implies that teams hope a player signs for less money to stay with the same team, but many players will leave for the team that is paying them more and they should.

NFL owners want to make money while also having a hard salary cap. They make plenty but ultimately business decisions are made in hopes the team is good but also so teams make millions (billions?) of dollars as well. Not overpaying for a general player is a must.

That goes for the player as well. Fans hope they love the team and city where they work, but they should also get paid top dollar because they have a small window of time in which to maximize their paydays. Loyalty is excellent, but making money is more important for everyone involved.

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