March will be filled with new experiences for San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman, who will marry his fiancée at the end of the month.
"30th birthday, wedding, new team, new environment," Sherman told reporters on Tuesday during an introductory press conference.
Sherman is recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered in a November game against the Arizona Cardinals. He discussed his timeline for his return to the practice field.
"I'll be back on the field (in) May, June," Sherman said. "I was back on the treadmill before I had to get the little scope and I look forward to renewing that timeline in the next couple of weeks ... I think people like to – with the Achilles or any injury – people like to compare other people. This guy came back like this. This guy came back like that. There are some people that are cut from a different cloth and built from different things, and I think I'm one of those people.
"I look forward to showing people that you can come back better from things. I know [Adrian Peterson] did it, but that was a knee. But I look forward to coming back better than ever, and I have a lot of things to show a few people."
Some of those "few people" may be among his former team, the Seattle Seahawks, who choose to release Sherman on March 9. The free agent cornerback signed with the division-rival 49ers the next day.
The "little scope" that Sherman mentioned was minor surgery to clean up a bone spur in his other foot.
"On my left heel, there was a bone spur that I had been dealing with for about three years," Sherman said. "I've just been postponing getting it done every year. One year, it was my son being born. We had lost the Super Bowl, my son was being born, and so I didn't want to get it done then. Then we went on vacation, and they were like, 'You're going to be out for a month and a half, two months.' So I'm like, 'When do you really want to be walking around on crutches on vacation?'
"The next year, same deal. You push it back, push it back. This year, we had booked it before the season even started. My trainers were like, 'You've pushed it back far enough.' So we had booked it in July, and after the Achilles ruptured, I just had to wait a couple of more weeks and get it done, then when my Achilles got strong enough."
Sherman went on to say that the recovery for that particular procedure was just about four to six weeks and he doesn't seem to be too concerned about it. However, his timeline for the return from the Achilles injury would make him available for a portion of the 49ers' offseason program. General manager John Lynch has a more conservative timeline and would prefer to see Sherman return by training camp in late-July.
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