No, Erin Andrews Wasn't Terrified by Scary Black Man Richard Sherman

Following the victory by the Seattle Seahawks against the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship two weeks ago, Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman drew criticism for delivering an incredible post-game rant to Fox’s sideline reporter Erin Andrews. While it seems strange to chastise a football player for being impassioned and aggressive after a game that’s impassioned and aggressive by nature, that’s exactly what happened on Twitter the night of the game. People called Sherman classless, they said he was a sore winner and then things got racial, with people on one side calling him racist slurs and people on the other claiming that Sherman had somehow set back the black race hundreds of years with his open display of (rightfully) arrogant anger.

At the center of this was Erin Andrews. The sight of 6-foot-3, African American Richard Sherman towering over this pretty blonde white woman as he bellowed about a preexisting grudge with 49ers player Michael Crabtree made America nervous. Never mind that sports reporting is Erin Andrews’ job and that interviewing pumped-up athletes is a big part of what she does, never mind that she’s certainly faced scarier people in her life — concern trolls were worried for her anyway and more than ready to villainize Richard Sherman as a show of support (and racism).

But here’s the thing. Up until recently, no one actually asked Erin Andrews how she felt about the interview with Sherman and if they had, they would have found out that she wasn’t scared at all. In fact, she loved the interview and wishes that all athletes would be so exciting and honest.

“I don’t think it was bizarre, I think it was great,” she told Fox News ‘ Media Buzz over the weekend at a Super Bowl press event. “I wish more athletes would be like that. We want someone to lose their minds like that. Obviously, he didn’t threaten me or make me feel uncomfortable.”

Andrews also clarified that she and Sherman have a friendly working relationship and that they’ve spoken since the sideline incident.

“I reached out right away once it started blowing up on Twitter just to let Seattle know that I was fine,” Andrews said. “‘Cause I saw it was taking a racial turn and I saw that people were saying I was scared and I wasn’t… and then [Sherman] reached out and I flew to Seattle a couple days later to do a sit-down, we hugged, we made fun of a lot of people’s comments.”

You can watch the full interview here, but be warned: It’s a Fox News clip and the whole second half of the interview is Howard Kurtz trying to figure out how Andrews can be pretty and into sports.