It was one of the most important plays for one of the greatest defenses in NFL history, but it has been all but forgotten because of what happened afterward.

Clinging to a 23-17 lead over the San Francisco 49ers in the final minute of the NFC championship game in January 2014, the Seattle Seahawks were sweating as Colin Kaepernick drove San Francisco to Seattle’s 18-yard line. On a first-and-10 play, Kaepernick, the dynamic young quarterback, went for the win with a pass to Michael Crabtree in the right corner of the end zone. The pass was true, the sure-handed receiver was in position, and the 49ers seemed to be stealing a trip to the 2014 Super Bowl.

Unfortunately for the 49ers, Richard Sherman, the shutdown cornerback for the Seahawks, had run step for step with Crabtree. Sherman turned first and leaped into the air. At full extension, his left hand batted the ball away from Crabtree and into the hands of Malcolm Smith for an interception that clinched the Seahawks’ trip to the Super Bowl, where Seattle romped past Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos.

An emotional argument between Sherman and Crabtree immediately after the play was not particularly noteworthy, but when Erin Andrews, Fox’s sideline reporter, approached Sherman for an on-field interview just after the final whistle, casual fans around the world were shocked at what unfolded.

Andrews asked Sherman to take her through the final play, and Sherman, still worked up from the argument with Crabtree, exploded. He shouted: “Well, I’m the best corner in the game. When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree, that’s the result you’re going to get.”

The incident, for people unfamiliar with Sherman’s backstory as a star student-athlete at Stanford, turned one of the game’s smartest players into the symbol of what was wrong with the NFL. Andrews’ befuddled reaction certainly did not help as she tried to rescue an interview that had gone off the rails.

Four years later, Sherman is out with the Seahawks — he was released Friday, along with fellow cornerback Jeremy Lane — and the team’s famed Legion of Boom defense appears to be fading into something far less spectacular. With Seattle’s secondary hampered by injuries recently, and with the often-dominant lineman Michael Bennett headed to Philadelphia in a trade, this week has the distinct feeling of a page turning on one of the sport’s great defensive units.

But even through those years of on-field dominance, it is telling that Sherman’s interview with Andrews, for some, largely shaped a perception of the player that undersold his influence both on and off the field — and that ignored the historical significance of the team’s defense.

“They misunderstand his passion for the game,” said Kam Chancellor, the team’s hard-hitting safety, in the week leading up to Seattle’s Super Bowl victory over Denver. “He made a great play at the end of the game and he had a microphone in his face. Anything could come out right then.”

If Earl Thomas was the quiet leader of the Legion of the Boom secondary, and Chancellor was, well, the boom, then Sherman was the group’s spokesman. It was Sherman who taunted New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady after a regular-season victory in 2012. It was Sherman who exploded at Crabtree. It was Sherman who held court with the news media week after week.

And yet despite the spotlight squarely trained on him, the fact that he has been one of the top three cornerbacks in the NFL for a significant stretch is sometimes lost in the shuffle.

After seven fantastic professional seasons, Sherman is 30 and working to recover from an Achilles tendon tear suffered last season. More important, he was scheduled to count for $13.2 million on the team’s salary cap. By releasing him by June 1, the Seahawks reduce that figure by $11 million. It is entirely possible that he has more good football to play, but it now appears that he will have to do it somewhere other than Seattle.

The departure of Sherman and Lane, Bennett’s trade to the Eagles, Chancellor’s continuing recovery from a serious neck injury and Thomas’ having missed seven games over the last two seasons because of injury adds up to a drastic overhaul for a defense that will hold a distinct spot in league history.

The unit’s on-field legacy, which includes helping the team to two Super Bowl berths, will most likely be its consistent and enduring dominance. Last year ended a streak of five seasons in which it was ranked in the NFL’s top five in both yardage and scoring defense. Most impressive, Seattle allowed the fewest points in the NFL for four consecutive seasons, 2012 to 2015. It finished third in 2016, leaving it one year short of matching the 1950s Cleveland Browns, who set a record by leading the NFL in that category for five consecutive years.