Fox Producer Says They Stopped the Richard Sherman Interview with Erin Andrews Because It Started Getting "Dangerous"

Richard Sherman’s now-famous interview heard round the world with Erin Andrews after Sunday night’s NFC Championship game has taken on a life of its own this week. One thing we can certainly all agree upon, it’s vaulted the relatively unknown Seattle cornerback into one of the most recognizable faces playing in next week’s Super Bowl in New York.

It appears we’re still a long way away from people no longer talking about the interview. Newsday sports media reporter Neil Best tweeted this out Thursday afternoon, which could start up another round of questioning since Fox producer Richie Zyontz said the interview was getting “dangerous” and that’s why they wrapped it up.

Fox producer Richie Zyontz on cutting off @ErinAndrews interview with @RSherman_25 Sunday: "It started getting a little dangerous for us."
— Neil Best (@sportswatch) January 23, 2014

Dangerous, obviously, could mean many things.

It’s hard to extrapolate that anyone, namely Andrews was in physical danger. That would be a huge reach.

The most reasonable way to interpret the word “dangerous” in this context is probably about Sherman using a curse word on air in the midst of his takedown of 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree. From a television production standpoint, a player swearing into a live mic (even with a delay) is a potentially very dangerous situation — the kind that leads to people losing their jobs.

As we know there are two things the FCC hates: on-air swearing or nudity. Remember the Janet Jackson incident at the Super Bowl that nearly melted the Internet for a couple weeks? Imagine what would have happened if Sherman dropped an f-bomb before Fox cutaway?

Let’s all be very thankful that didn’t happen.

UPDATE: SI’s media writer/critic Richard Deitsch provides a little more context on Zyontz comments. Fox says it cutaway and that the interview didn’t end with Sherman walking away.