Russell Wilson Richsrd Sherman Sbnation Beef

After a season full of lackluster prime time games, the football gods are on a very generous streak, giving us TWO weeks with the Seahawks on after 8 p.m. ET. Last Monday's game against the Bills in Seattle had the kind of bizarre ending we've come to expect from the Seahawks on Mondays. But this week's Sunday night game that features the Seahawks on the road against the Patriots could be even better. Why?

Richard Sherman vs. Tom Brady, round three!

I'm excited. You're excited. And Sherman himself is really excited. He even wrote a blog post about it.

"As we prep for the Patriots you very quickly think of dealing with Tom Brady. He is a master of being able to manipulate defenses by using his eyes and looking defenders off. He's going to utilize quick passes frequently, so all of us on defense have to be sure with our tackling. Tom does a great job of using the short passing game to set up a deep shot, so we have to be aware on every play.

"I'm excited to travel to New England and get this weekend going."

OK, so that's not the most effusive prose to get hyped about a game. But for a guy who spends A LOT of time prepping for opponents and studying the rule book, it's pretty cool that he at least wrote a little blog about it.

Since this is only the third time these two have faced off against each other, it's worth looking back at how this became one of the most intriguing matchups in the NFL after just two games.

Round 1 — Week 6, Oct. 14, 2012

This was the famous "U mad, bro?" incident, where it all started.

A quick refresher. The Patriots had a 20-10 lead heading into the fourth quarter. But Sherman and Earl Thomas picked off Brady on back-to-back possessions at the end of third and into the fourth quarter. New England kicked a field goal to go up 23-10, but that's when Russell Wilson and the Seahawks offense started their comeback, battling to an eventual 24-23 win.

After the game, Sherman tweeted his infamous meme (which he later took down).

"U mad bro?" were the last words in a series of trash talking that went on throughout the game.

After the game, Sherman gave some insight into how the whole thing progressed during the game, including Brady's invitation to "see him after the game."

"Every TV timeout, I went up and said it right to [Brady]: 'Please keep trying me. I'm going to take it from you.' That was when they were winning. He just gave me that look and said, 'Oh, I'll see you after the game.' Well, I made sure I saw him after the game."

Essentially, Tom Brady started it.

It was lost on Brady, or at least he said it was when he later claimed that he didn't know what Sherman was talking about.

"Truthfully at that time, I thought he was just coming up to say, 'Good game.'"

Brady always runs away from a good war of words, which is understandable when your future depends on selling furry boots to the masses. But it waters down the kind of off-field sniping that makes the days between NFL games so much fun.

Sherman took a shot at Brady's short-term memory for rivalry after that, too.

"I think people somehow get a skewed view of Tom Brady, that he's just a clean cut, does everything right, never says a bad word to anyone," Sherman said in 2015. "We know him to be otherwise. In that moment of him being himself, he said some things and we returned the favor."

That game produced more than just the meme heard 'round the world. It made Sherman a household name (that and his performance in the 2014 NFC Championship and afterward).

Now you can get "U mad bro?" T-shirts for the whole family.

Round 2 — Super Bowl 49, Feb. 1, 2015

We don't know how much trash talking the two players did during the game. This one is more famous for what happened on the field, Sherman's reaction to it on the sidelines and what he and Brady did after the game.

You remember the play: Malcolm Butler's goal-line interception of Russell Wilson. Sherman's reaction was captured on camera, and then it was captured on GIFs and spread around the interwebs like wildfire.

The Patriots won, 28-24. After the game, Sherman found Brady on the field and offered him his hand, the first player to congratulate Brady on winning the Super Bowl.

Sherman and Brady have something else in common besides an intense rivalry: a shared disdain for the league office. Brady toed the line during his legal fight against the NFL via DeflateGate, but Sherman had his back publicly, blasting the NFL's double standard and the way it handled Brady's suspension.

This week's game, round three between Sherman and Brady, doesn't have the stakes of a Super Bowl or even the kind of hype you wouldn't have imagined between these two teams coming into the season.

The Patriots are favored by a touchdown, more in the eyes of some sportsbooks. The Seahawks are dealing with injuries on defense and offense that works in fits and starts, thanks in part to a terrible offensive line.

But Sherman's playing and so is Brady. And they're doing it in prime time for all the world to see. Whatever the line says about the game, we can count on those two making it entertaining.

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Source: https://www.sbnation.com/2016/11/13/13613574/richard-sherman-tom-brady-seahawks-patriots-2016-u-mad-bro-rivarly

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