A must-post, for three reasons. One: We badly need a palate cleanser and Shermanmania remains in full swing among the media. His pre-Super Bowl press appearance this afternoon was actually carried live on some cable news nets. Two: The irony of Maverick, of all people, dumping on a guy for belligerently shooting his mouth off is too sweet to go unmentioned. Didn’t he once drop the F-bomb on a fellow Republican for not being as pro-amnesty as he would have liked? C’mon. Three: This is an opportunity to see how deep McCain-hatred among conservative blog readers runs. Is J-Mac’s irritation at Richard Sherman enough by itself to convert some HA readers into Seahawks fans for the big game?

I’ve gotta admit, I’m starting to lean that way.

Arizona’s senior senator made sure to call out the Seattle Seahawks’ trash-talking cornerback Richard Sherman as a “loudmouth” and underscored his grudge against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

McCain said he was picking Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos over Sherman’s Seahawks in the Super Bowl.

“I think Denver. You know, everybody is such a Manning fan,” McCain told KFYI radio. ”That loudmouth from Seattle sort of epitomizes the Seattle team to me. … I’m sure I’m going to get in trouble for that one, too.”

McCain for the prosecution, Mary Katharine Ham for the defense:

I can do nothing other than root for Peyton, but I like Richard Sherman more now, not less. He yelled for 17 secs & he seems interesting.

— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) January 22, 2014

Not that yelling was a feature, just that by virtue of the yelling, I found out more, cool things about him.

— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) January 22, 2014

Exactly. The post-game interview was poor sportsmanship but it was, as far as I’ve seen, an aberration. Sherman’s low-key and charming in most of his media hits, the occasional “I’m better than you” taunt at Skip Bayless notwithstanding — and frankly, I don’t want to live in a world where a man can’t taunt Skip Bayless. His point at today’s pre-game presser about “thugs” and hockey players was both funny and true. As it turns out, his jersey’s now the 10th-biggest seller among NFL players, and among defensive players specifically, he’s number one. Normally I’d assume that’s a function of people having watched the interview with Erin Andrews and wanting to emulate him as a tough-talking bad-ass, but I think the effect MKH describes of finding Sherman a tremendous player and an engaging person is playing into it too. I get a bit of a Charles Barkley vibe from him. Unpredictable, occasionally irritating, but hard not to like.

Here he is telling CNN that it was immature to attack Crabtree the way he did in the interview.