49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick described Richard Sherman's emotional postgame rant after the NFC Championship Game as "ridiculous" during multiple interviews in New York City in the days before Super Bowl XLVIII.
"As my dad has always told me, if you have to tell people how good you are, then how good are you really? If you have to go on national TV and try to say you’re the best cornerback in the league, then you’ve got your own insecurities," Kaepernick told Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post.
Down 23-17 in the final minute of the NFC title game, Kaepernick threw a pass to receiver Michael Crabtree in end zone with Sherman defending him. But the Seahawks' All-Pro cornerback deflected the ball away and into the hands of linebacker Malcolm Smith for a game-sealing interception. Asked about his final pass attempt, Kaepernick said he would always throw the ball to Crabtree in that situation.
"I'll take Crabtree on Sherman every day of the week," Kaepernick said on ESPN's "Mike & Mike" radio show on Thursday.
A night earlier, Kaepernick spoke to Deadspin.com and said he "hadn't heard Crabtree say anything about" Sherman before he lashed out in an interview with Erin Andrews.
"The question wasn't even directed toward that, and you just went off on a tangent," said Kaepernick. "Just like, 'Oh, you're a mediocre receiver' and this and that. Really? You're gonna call him a mediocre receiver?"
In a column called "10 Things I Learned After America Learned About Me" published at The Monday Morning Quarterback earlier this week, the 25-year-old Sherman wrote that he "shouldn't have attacked Michael Crabtree."
1. No one has ever made himself great by showing how small someone else is. That’s not mine. It belongs to Irvin Himmel. Somebody tweeted it at me after the NFC Championship Game. If I could pass a lesson on to the kids it would be this: Don’t attack anybody. I shouldn’t have attacked Michael Crabtree the way I did. You don’t have to put anybody else down to make yourself bigger.