Tom Brady's response to Richard Sherman: My dad taught me to 'play with class'

Nate Davis, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman let Tom Brady have it Sunday, getting in the face of the New England Patriots quarterback after their game, dissing him on Twitter and deriding the Pats after they were victimized 24-23 in Seattle's latest harrowing comeback.

Brady responded in a radio interview this week in typically understated (but perhaps backhanded?) fashion.

"He's a very good player and I have a lot of respect for that defense and certainly that secondary," Brady said of the Seahawks in general and Sherman specifically while talking to Jim Gray on Dial Global Sports. "They play very well together. My dad taught me at a young age to play with class and respect and give my opponents respect, and certainly I have a lot of respect for the Seahawks.

"My dad also told me to worry about the things that I can control and certainly not worry about the things that I can't. And I really don't have feelings either way toward what someone may say or think. Really, what's important is how I feel. We went out and we played a very good team on the road and had an opportunity to win there in the fourth quarter and just didn't take advantage of it."

Subtext? You be the judge.

"Every TV timeout, I went up and said it right to (Brady): 'Please keep trying me. I'm going to take it from you.' That was when they were winning. He just gave me that look and said, 'Oh, I'll see you after game.' Well, I made sure I saw him after the game," said excitable Sherman, who eventually intercepted Brady, Sunday. He got into the two-time MVP's grille afterward and tweeted a picture of it with the added caption, "U MAD BRO."

Sherman appeared on NFL Network's NFL AM on Tuesday and said, "I have a great deal of respect for everything Tom Brady has done in his career. ... It's just one of those things where Newton's third law of motion applies. It's one of those things where every action has an equal or greater reaction. That's what this came down to."

But he also said of the Patriots following the upset Sunday: "We're built for a heavyweight fight. I don't think they're built for a heavyweight fight."

The rematch isn't scheduled until 2016 ... unless the teams meet in a Super Bowl before then, something Brady also not-so-subtly alluded to just in case Sherman was listening.

"I don't think anything's decided here in the sixth week of the year, or how capable you are of winning big games," Brady said in response to Sherman's "heavyweight" dig. "That's to be determined in January, and it's only October, so we're just going to keep trying to get better."

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(Thanks to SportsRadioInterviews for bringing this story to our attention.)