Richard Sherman, Rhetoric, and Racial Animus in the Rebirth of the Bogeyman Myth

After the Seattle Seahawks won the NFC Championship game, the postgame interview of Richard Sherman, a defensive back for the Seahawks, became subject to racialized discourse in the media. This article draws upon important concepts of black danger, blackness and the media, and racial animus to explain how media pundits and online commentaries about the interview have created a modem-day version of the bogeyman. In so doing, the article theorizes a new logic to racial animus-the myth of the bogeyman-to expound on the confluence of race, law, and sports. This new approach will help to explain covert racism in the professional sports industry and in the media at large, and the complex politics of racial acceptance on the backdrop of sports media's whiteness.