Veteran cornerback Richard Sherman is back in the Super Bowl, playing in the big game for the San Francisco 49ers against the Kansas City Chiefs after winning a title with the Seattle Seahawks in 2013-14. Still, one week after Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant perished in a helicopter crash with his daughter and seven others, the future Hall of Fame shooting guard is firmly on people's mind, Sherman being one of them.

Sherman, 31, wore a backwards Kobe Bryant jersey from an All-Star Game, donning the No. 8 (one of Bryant's two retired numbers with the Lakers) as he entered Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida, for Super Bowl LIV (via FOX Sports).

The five-time Pro-Bowl defensive back grew up in southern California, later attending Stanford University before joining the Seahawks in the professional ranks when he was selected in the fifth round of the 2011 draft. Richard Sherman, as a Compton, Calif., native, is honoring the iconic lifetime Laker by wearing Bryant's jersey and keeping the recently deceased five-time champion on his mind ahead of the Super Bowl.

Despite playing another sport in a different league, Bryant was the talk of Miami this past week in the lead-up to Super Bowl LIV. Many of the athletes looked up to the eighteen-time NBA All-Star—Richard Sherman among them. “Mamba Mentality” was on the lips of most of the players between the Chiefs and 49ers as the professional athletes admired the late Bryant's competitive and sheer will to win at all costs.

Richard Sherman is playing today in the biggest game of the season, but his mind is, at least partially, thinking about the lost Bryants.

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