Seahawks News: Geno Smith, Pete Carroll, Devon Witherspoon and Deion Sanders

Devon Witherspoon comparison to Deion Sanders "disrespectful"

We all heard it. Not just once either but a couple of times. During Monday Night Football in Week 4, while Seattle rookie cornerback Devon Witherspoon was proving to a general NFL audience just how great he is and how much better he will be, Troy Aikman from the broadcast booth compared Witherspoon to the great Deion Sanders. Some of the problem with Aikman's statement, however, is that Aikman was comparing Witherspoon's tackling to Sanders.

Aikman meant the comparison to be positive. And Aikman played against Sanders and also with Sanders when both were Dallas Cowboys. Maybe Aikman wasn't watching his defense that closely because he surely would have seen how Sanders was a notoriously non-aggressive tackler. Sanders' job, it seemed, was to cover receivers, not make big hits.

Witherspoon, though, loves to hit people and hit them with maximum force. He likely is already a better tackler than Sanders could ever want to be because while Sanders could do many things that other players could not, one thing Sanders didn't do well was tackle. Aikman's comparison is unfair to both Witherspoon and Sanders, to be fair.

While Witherspoon seems capable of being a shutdown corner one day, Sanders was one of the best to ever do that. Let's see how good Witherspoon is for a few years before we start comparing him to Sanders in that regard. But Witherspoon hits like a mack truck, and Sanders didn't do that.

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