Richard Sherman Comments on Recent Police Shootings

Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman used his weekly media availability Wednesday to talk about the deaths of Terence Crutcher and Keith Lamont Scott, both of whom were shot by police over the last week.

The Associated Press' Tim Booth shared a clip of Sherman's comments:

Pro Football Talk's Curtis Crabtree (via Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio) transcribed the end of the press conference:

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It's an unfortunate place to be in. There's not a lot you can tell a kid. There's not a lot you can try to inspire ... a person when you say, 'We need black fathers to be in the community to stay there for your kids,' but they're getting killed in the street for nothing, for putting their hands on their cars. And I think that's the unfortunate part, that's the unfortunate place that we're living in. And something needs to be done. And so when a guy takes a knee, you can ignore it. You can say he's not being patriotic, he's not honoring the flag. I'm doing none of those things. I'm saying, straight up, this is wrong and we need to do something. So thank you guys, have a blessed day.

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Crutcher was shot Friday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by a police officer who had stopped to determine why Crutcher's SUV was disabled in the middle of the road, per Max Blau, Jason Morris and Catherine E. Shoichet of CNN.

On Tuesday, police in Charlotte, North Carolina, shot Scott while serving a warrant, per Steve Almasy of CNN.

Sherman isn't the first athlete to discuss their deaths.

The Denver Post's Nicki Jhabvala shared comments from Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall:

Both Chicago Bulls shooting guard Dwyane Wade and Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook posted about Crutcher's shooting on Instagram:

In a July interview with former NFL cornerback Domonique Foxworth on The Undefeated, Sherman discussed the best way for star athletes to address the situation:

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I think we target the inner city and the black community and a lot of the places that have high gang violence and beg for them to stop the senseless violence within our own community. Because once we stop that, once we unite as a people, once we come together and stop looking at each other as enemies, then we can move forward in a very powerful way. And combat issues in a different way than it has ever been done before. But until we do that, we are fighting on two fronts.

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Florio noted Sherman had initially left the press conference without any answering any questions from the press, which is required during a player's media availability. He subsequently took questions in the team's locker room.