Optimus Prime called Richard Sherman to wish him luck on playing Megatron

Chris Chase, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

This week, Richard Sherman changed his Twitter name to Optimus Prime in advance of playing Calvin "Megatron" Johnson and the Detroit Lions. Few mortals can stop the dominant Johnson, so perhaps his namesake's nemesis could do the trick?

If holding the fate of the Autobots in his hands wasn't enough motivation for Sherman, he received an extra push this week.

Peter Cullen, the actor who provides the voice of Optimus Prime, called Sherman in character to wish him luck on Sunday's game. Sherman told Sam Farmer of The Los Angeles Times (who helped set up the call through a mutual friend) he was star-struck when he received the call, but was able to keep his head enough to ask Cullen to call him back to leave a message he could play for his friends and teammates.

(Click on the video at the bottom of the post if you need a refresher on Cullen's powerful Optimus Prime voice.)

"Richard, this is Optimus Prime," Cullen said on the message. "When you see Megatron, you must tell him… 'One shall stand, one shall fall.' Wish you the best. Roll out!"

Seeing as how Sherman has already talked trash to Tom Brady and has been fond of criticizing his former Stanford coach, Jim Harbaugh, I'd say it's a high probability Sherman delivers that message verbatim.

Farmer asked Cullen who would emerge victoris on Sunday. "Optimus Prime always wins that battle, for sure," he said. "But not without tremendous adversity coming from Megatron, and sometimes we're left up in the air."