Out and about with Richard Sherman, who likes an acai bowl but can’t live without Taco Bell

Few people in the world travel as often as professional athletes. With On the Road, that GQ Sports Travel Questionnaire, They weigh everything from room service to a comfortable flight to their favorite chain restaurants.

Nowadays, as a member of the Thursday Night Football Richard Sherman is a man of few needs. If you get this Super Bowl champion in a city with an indoor soccer stadium and a hotel room equipped with one balconyplenty of sockets and a normal shower, you’re ready to go. If there is also a particularly strong jerk chicken restaurant in the city in question, he is in pig heaven.

The man has traveled extensively, both during his 11-year playing career and now as a speaker. Despite growing up in Southern California, the 36-year-old has turned his back on it La La Land in favor of his adopted hometown Seattle. When GQ Associated with Sherman, he was in New Orleans enjoying all of his favorite pastimes – although he still has some issues with the Superdome. He talked about other stadiums that bothered him, which is why he stayed there Pacific Northwestand a fast food chain he just can’t stop eating.

When you’re on the go Thursday Night FootballHow much time do you actually have in each city? Can you even explore?

We don’t have much time. Sick run in the morning of the game, and we go to dinner the night before. Usually it’s like this: be there during the day on Wednesday, dinner, wake up, production meeting, practice, maybe lunch if you have a buddy in town to hang out with, and then go to the stadium. With the East Coast games, we don’t finish until 1:00 a.m., so we head straight to the hotel to get a few hours of sleep and then catch the 7:00 a.m. flight.

Have you gotten used to this lifestyle yet?

It’s a similar routine to ours. When you play sports, you get familiar with your schedule and figure out what you need to do: how to pack, how to unpack, how to operate on game day. When we first started, I did a lot more of my normal game day routine than I did while I was playing. You come to the game and it’s like: I don’t play. Why do I stand out?

Are there any cities where you feel like the fans particularly hate you? Does anyone ever say crazy shit to you on the street?

NO! To be honest, I’ve never understood that. It would have been our rival team San Franciscobut these fans love me now! When you’re on the road and you’re not an opponent, people say, “Man, I’m a big fan!” You were one of the best to ever play!” Nobody is ever that rude in person, at least not yet.

A lot of nonsense is said behind a screen. They won’t say the same thing in person, but they will say, “I used to hate you, but man, you’re the nicest guy in the world!” Or, “You’re bigger than I thought!”

To be somewhat realistic, when you were in the League you developed a reputation as a villain. How did this affect you psychologically?

I don’t think it affected me much because I never thought people would even know me. People who didn’t know me judged me based on football games and their opinion didn’t really matter to me. For the people who know me, spend time with me, talk to me, if they don’t like me, they have to explain why. But there aren’t that many of these people that I know.