It’s the best rivalry in American professional sports, and at this point it isn’t even close. You can have your Red Sox vs. Yankees, Heat vs. Pacers, even your Giants vs. Dodgers or Giants vs. Athletics. When it comes to the kind of animosity that only arises when two really good teams spend a few years fighting for the same thing, NOTHING beats 49ers vs. Seahawks.
Trent Baalke hates the Seahawks. Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll can’t stand each other. Seahawks players have shown a desire to beat the living hell out of Harbaugh in the past. And if the fact that neither team can seem to conquer the other’s home stadium isn’t enough, Richard Sherman refuses to shut up about Michael Crabtree.
Ahmad Brooks is a man of relatively few words, and tweets — under 200, and he joined Twitter four years ago. After a five-day break, Brooks’ Twitter silence was broken on Wednesday night in a big way.
I’m with you @KingCrab15 Fuck em!
— Ahmad Brooks (@AhmadBrooks55) July 10, 2014
The use of “em” creates some ambiguity … but that didn’t last long.
@RSherman_25 keep the NFL entertainment going, see you where it’s real on the field. — Ahmad Brooks (@AhmadBrooks55) July 10, 2014
I wrote about how Sherman is quickly becoming a target of scorn for some of the NFL’s best cornerbacks, who don’t appreciate the Seahawks All-Pro’s boasts about being the best corner in the game. Just like Darrelle Revis, DeAngelo Hall and Patrick Peterson, Brooks won’t get a chance to really see Sherman on the field. I guess he will literally, but tackling Sherman would probably result in a penalty and/or suspension for Brooks.
He was allowed to do this last year, though:
As of 3 am PST (I’m writing this from Hawaii), Sherman hasn’t responded. But Brooks’ comments got everyone riled up on Twitter, and you could almost see Brooks smiling and shaking his head while leaning back in some expensive leather chair, watching the mentions pile up on his phone.
This twitter stuff is funny, only the Internet can get everyone hyped up like this.
— Ahmad Brooks (@AhmadBrooks55) July 10, 2014
That’s true, but the rivalry deserves some credit as well.