Is Richard Sherman a Thug?

Richard Sherman is an excellent professional football player, an African-American graduate of Stanford and rich. Last week, after winning a key game, he unleashed a display of taunting on national TV that turned off many viewers, including me. I find taunting, rubbing it in, unpleasant to watch, but I'm old and out of date in certain ways. I didn't watch Jersey Shore or those survivor programs (except for the first, which was compelling if appalling).

Anyway, some Interneters and talking heads on TV, none of whom had ever met Richard Sherman, who might be a a nice guy out of uniform, apparently called him a thug. Sherman is a law-abiding citizen and a bad sport but not a thug. John Gotti was a thug. Chris Christie is a bully but not a thug. What really caught my interest, though, was the football player's next claim, which was that "thug" is code for the n-word. As many must know, the term "thug" comes from India, where it originally referred to assassins from a murderous cult devoted to the goddess Kali. This religious organization was suppressed by the British in the 1830s. Perhaps the original thugs became Anglicans. In any case, the term hung around.  

I have never heard "thug" used to mean the n-word. Perhaps Richard Sherman just made that up. Or maybe he didn't. I have to say that I was amazed to see so many of my fellow progressives immediately decide that Sherman was an authority on diction. ("Thug" was also a term in some early rap, where it meant a hopeless guy leading a hopeless life.)