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Sherman rips NFL policies: League should use 'common sense'

Mark Zerof / USA TODAY Sports

Many of the NFL's issues regarding inconsistent policies and its rule book have been exposed and criticized this season by fans, players, and media alike.

Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman has been at the forefront of pretty much every major discussion since breaking onto the scene in 2012. On Thursday, he published a piece on The Players' Tribune entitled "Common Sense," where he broke down his disagreements with how the league treats its players.

Sherman criticized the NFL's attempt to take emotions out of the game in order to hold players to undefinable high standards, which it failed to do itself after botching yet another domestic violence investigation, Josh Brown's. Sherman admitted he has some sympathy for the league having to deal with domestic violence, as no two cases are the same, but he still can't get behind their actions - or lack thereof.

The All-Pro said, in reality, the NFL just wants players to play and that's it:

I think if the NFL had its way, we would all be robots. We would all be perfect human beings off the field so that the league would never have to deal with another p.r. nightmare and everybody would smile and nod and hand the ball over to the official after a touchdown or a big play.

The funny thing is, if the NFL did have its way, we would lose what makes our game great. We would lose what draws fans to the sport.

We play a game. Part of the joy of watching that game is seeing the emotion on display. Seeing the passion. If guys didn’t play with passion and just went out there and went through the motions, I think people would stop watching.

We’re already seeing a bit of that. TV ratings are down, and I think we can point to the NFL legislating the emotion out of the game as a contributing factor. The NFL is enforcing a policy against celebration. Against joy. Against fun. It’s something I know a lot of players are frustrated with, and it appears that fans may be as well.

Sherman also pointed out an issue with league officials telling players to "act like they've been there before," when they, including commissioner Roger Goodell, haven't actually been there before.

The issue of Goodell's all-encompassing power means any NFL policy can be overruled just as quickly as it's implemented.

The commissioner simply has too much power.

At the end of the day, fans don’t want to watch robots. They want to watch players having fun and showing emotion. I’m with them. I think what they also want is for the league to be consistent in its discipline. To be transparent. To do what it says it’s going to do and to use a little common sense.

I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

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