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The problem with Richard Sherman and Lolo Jones is simple

(AP)

(AP)

You may have noticed that Richard Sherman commands attention. So does Lolo Jones. Sherman will play for the Super Bowl on Sunday. A week later, Jones will compete in the Sochi Olympics.

Both are exceptional athletes with divisive opinions and few apologies. You could argue the two bring any negative public sentiments upon themselves. When you’re loud, boisterous and supremely confident, someone is bound to resent you. For Jones, it would appear that resentment comes from her teammates.

“I should have been working harder on gaining Twitter followers than gaining muscle mass,” Emily Azevedo told USA TODAY Sports’ Kelly Whiteside. Azevedo, along with teammate Katie Eberling, was in the running for the spot Jones received.

“I feel this year there was a certain agenda,” Eberling said. “It’s no fault of my teammates. There’s been a lot of inconsistencies and that makes you wonder what’s going on. It’s not right.”

For Sherman, it comes from his competition.

“I approach the game — and I have respect for my opponents,” Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said when asked about Sherman. “That’s the way our team always plays. We win with graciousness, and when we lose, we could do better. Some teams don’t always do that, or that’s not their program.”

Azevedo, Eberling, and Brady are exasperated by the behavior of Jones and Sherman for the very reasons the should be celebrating them. They won’t be denied.

You don’t like Richard Sherman talking smack? Shut him up.

You don’t want Lolo Jones on the bobsled team? Take her spot.

No one handed Sherman a trip to the Super Bowl and no one punched Jones’ ticket to the Olympics for her. Sherman doesn’t get the opportunity to unleash his postgame diatribe unless he makes a spectacular defensive play to win the game and to say Jones made the bobsled roster because of the size of her Twitter following is just absurd.

This man and woman are in the business of competition. They’re paid based on their performance and are competing at the level they are, not because of how well they talk, but because they get results.

Yeah, they talk big games. They also back it up. We like our athletes to tell us they gotta play it one day at a time, that they’re just happy to be there, help the ballclub, give it their best shot, and the good Lord willing, things will work out.

When they go off script, yell at sorry receivers, and tweet dismal paychecks it makes people uncomfortable.

That’s our problem, not theirs.

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