SEATTLE – Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman plays in an $430 million NFL stadium, paid for mostly by taxpayer money. But if he’s ever elected President of the United States, he says he'd put a stop to publicly-funded stadiums.
“I hear billions and millions of taxpayer dollars being spent on stadiums and this and that and I also hear we’re in a trillion-dollar deficit. So I’m kind of confused. That kind of perplexes me,” Sherman told ESPN’s John Clayton this week.“I’d stop spending billions of taxpayer dollars on stadiums and probably get us out of debt and maybe make the billionaires who actually benefit from the stadiums pay for them. That kind of seems like a system that would work for me.”
$300 million -- 70 percent of the cost of CenturyLink Field -- was paid for by the public. The other $130 million was paid by Seahawks owner Paul Allen, one of the richest men in the world.
Sherman said if he ever ran for President, it would be as an independent or for a yet-to-be-named political “partay.” He’d pick Seahawks wide receiver and kick returner Tyler Lockett as his running mate.
What about his former Stanford teammate and longtime friend Doug Baldwin?
“Baldwin has to be my Secretary of Defense. He’s an angry guy. I’d trust my country with Doug Baldwin,” said Sherman.
Sherman said his slogan would be “Make America The Place You Want To Raise Your Kids.”
As for what one football rule he would change if he could, Sherman said he wants to make defensive pass interference a 10-yard penalty just like offensive pass interference. Right now, it’s a spot foul – meaning the penalty is enforced where the pass interference happened.
