Richard Sherman: NFL would not have banned Donald Sterling

Outspoken Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman fell just short of calling the NFL racist, when he suggested during an interview with Time that the league never would have reacted the same way as the NBA did with Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling from the league for life after leaked recordings of a recorded conversation revealed the owner using racist and offensive language.

Interviewer Sean Gregory asked Sherman if he thinks NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell would react in the same way and ban an owner for life.

“No I don’t. Because we have an NFL team called the Redskins. I don’t think the NFL really is as concerned as they show. The NFL is more of a bottom line league. If it doesn’t affect their bottom line, they’re not as concerned,” he said.

Sherman added that it “says a whole lot” about the NFL that it still has a team named the Redskins.

“I think the discussion has stopped. And the public has just accepted it. And I think there should be more conversations. But it is what it is,” he said.

Earlier in the interview, Sherman said he wasn’t all the shocked by Sterling’s racist remarks.

“Because it showed me that America still had some progress to make.On equality, and understanding that it doesn’t matter what color you are, you treat people as people. And whether a good person or a bad person, you don’t judge them off the color of their skin.”

“There’s a lot of racism still alive and still active,” he added. “And it just forced America to rethink it once again. And to really, really understand that racism isn’t gone. We have to actively push it out. And snuff it out.”