Megatron ready for Seahawks' Optimus Prime

Always good to see NFL players geek out a little bit.

Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, who began altering his image a few weeks ago after he got in Tom Brady's grille when the 'Hawks upset the New England Patriots, is again making headlines after changing his name on Twitter to Optimus Prime.

Naturally, Sherman, a key member of arguably the NFL's top secondary, will be lining up Sunday opposite Detroit Lions wideout Calvin Johnson, a.k.a. Megatron.

It should be a battle of Cybertronian proportions given Johnson's ability to transform a game not to mention Sherman's penchant for negating receivers (he leads the NFL with 14 passes broken up). Johnson doesn't talk much, so don't expect a Starscream from him regardless of what the feisty Sherman says or does, but it wouldn't send a Shockwave if Johnson (who has just one TD this season) proves to be a Devastator on Sunday.

"I can use it, definitely use it as motivation, no doubt about it," Johnson said Thursday.

Johnson leads the Lions with 38 catches for 592 yards, but he has scored just one touchdown this year as he and quarterback Matthew Stafford have struggled to find a rhythm. He said he's looking forward to going against a Seahawks team that plays a lot of single-high safety coverage, something the Lions haven't seen much of this year.

Sherman leads Seattle's standout secondary with three interceptions and 11 pass breakups.

The brash cornerback made headlines earlier this month for taunting Tom Brady — he tweeted out a photo of him in Brady's face with the caption, "U Mad Bro?" after Seattle's 24-23 win — and calling his former college coach, the 49ers' Jim Harbaugh, a bully after Harbaugh said Seattle's secondary was too physical.

"Self-given nickname," Johnson said. "Hey, if that's who he wants to be, that's cool."

Lions center Dominic Raiola said Sherman's name change was "kind of WWE-ish to me."

"He took a shot at Brady, one of the best quarterbacks to ever play," Raiola said. "Take a shot at coaches. Whatever. That's disrespectful to this game, but maybe he doesn't have a lot of respect, who knows?"

Raiola said Sherman's comments won't rattle Johnson but might "wake a monster up."

(OK, we hope you enjoyed the Transformers references. If you're over 40, sorry. We're now done geeking out, too.)