Sunday night will be just another championship-level game for San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman. It's no different than any other game this season. He insisted that to be the case on Thursday despite what is on the line in the division matchup against his former team — the Seattle Seahawks.
The victor on Sunday night will emerge as the NFC West champion. Should that winner be San Francisco, it will mean home-field advantage throughout the playoffs and a much easier path to the team's seventh trip to a Super Bowl.
While Sherman isn't expressing any strong feelings regarding this division rivalry now, that wasn't always the case. The veteran cornerback made that clear while speaking with reporters after Thursday's practice. There was some bad blood between him and former 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh.
"Was" is the wrong word because that bad blood is still there for Sherman, who doesn't regret any of his past antics against those Harbaugh-led 49ers teams.
"I meant every single one," Sherman told reporters after Thursday's practice. "I meant it to Harbaugh. We've had our history. I don't regret a second of that. I would do it again twice, maybe more."
To clarify, Sherman was asked if he, as a more mature and seasoned player, would do the same thing if Harbaugh were still on the opposing sideline.
"If he was their coach, and I was in the same position, it would maybe be worse right now," Sherman responded. "There's bad blood there. There's history, and that's not the team. That's not me, like, 'Oh man, the team is bad.' That was very personal for me.
"That was less about (the) 49ers and Seahawks. It was very personal. I didn't care if he was coaching the dang Wichita Winnipegs, he was going to get it."
Sherman added: "Our history goes way more personal than football. There's no Christmas cards."
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