Tommy Sherman was a former student of Lawndale High in Trent Lane's graduating class, and the former quarterback of the Lawndale Lions.
He is voiced by Ken Schatz.
Physical Appearance[]
Tommy is a male with a muscular build and wavy shoulder-length light brown hair.
He is seen wearing a grey t-shirt, blue jeans, and shoes.
Personality[]
Personality-wise, Daria summed him up as being "a colossal jerk." He was arrogant, a man-child, and rude to an extreme, having no concern for the feelings or needs of others, and he felt entitled to sex and attention at his every whim. One odd habit he had was referring to himself in the third person, as a way of emphasizing his importance and showing his more narcissistic tendencies. He also tended to strut in a self-important manner.
Background[]
Tommy Sherman was born on March 22, 1976, during his teen years he was a star football player for the Lawndale Lions of Lawndale High and was lionized for winning the State Championship. He played quarterback and insisted on making all the touchdown runs himself ("a real team player," Daria snarks).
Distracted by the crowd, he would often run straight into a goal post during the run, sometimes injuring himself. He broke his nose twice and during the playoffs went into a coma for six days, after crashing so hard he cracked his helmet. He recovered without apparent harm the day before the big game and lead the team to victory.
Trent Lane remarked that Tommy cut a lot of classes and he would graduate in June 1994.
In "The Misery Chick," a break-away goalpost on the football field was to be dedicated to him, which set up the major conflict of the episode. When visiting the school, he managed to piss off everyone he talked to by being an obnoxious, boorish, crude man who assumed every girl wanted him and that it was his right to rip the piss out of boys at random. Finally, after telling Daria she wasn't hot enough that he'd talk to her ever (actually she wanted him off her locker), they fought:
- Daria: I know the whole school's turning itself inside out because of some egotistical football player, and I've seen you insult or proposition just about everyone you come across, so my guess is that you're the football player guy. Congratulations. You must have worked very hard to become such a colossal jerk so quickly.
- Tommy: You know what Tommy Sherman's going to do now? He's going to go out onto the field and check out his new goal post. He's going to read the plaque and think of all the people who admire him. But you wouldn't know anything about that. You're one of those misery chicks, always moping about what a cruel world it is, making a big deal about it so people won't notice that you're a loser.
Immediately afterward, Tommy was struck by a large, heavy wooden crate containing the goalpost (which had apparently not yet been assembled and erected) and was killed on the spot.
His death left almost everyone in school upset, though for the most part, this seemed less because Tommy Sherman himself was dead and more because someone was dead at school & that represented death in general. Kevin was genuinely upset that Tommy was dead. Others like Brittany, meanwhile, were upset because they weren't sure how to feel that someone they disliked was dead and felt rotten that they hated "the dead guy", while Jane was left shaky by the fact she'd joked he would die a few seconds before he really did.
Over a year later, in "A Tree Grows in Lawndale," Kevin accidentally crashed his bike into the Tommy Sherman Memorial Tree. Brittany and the other cheerleaders grew terrified that Sherman's angry ghost was now going to haunt the school. After an exorcism 'failed', the cheerleaders began collecting money to replace the tree and 'appease' the ghost. Daria joked she could use one of Kevin's crutches as a replacement - which Brittany did. After the Lions won a game, the rubber and plastic crutch somehow sprouted a flower...
Trivia[]
- The Daria Diaries mistakenly identifies Lawndale High School’s football field as the location of the Tommy Sheridan Memorial Goalpost.
- Whether Tommy was bothered by Daria or not his up for debate. His sneering comeback could be Tommy shrugging off what Daria's just said, as he simply cuts her down and carries on as normal. On the other hand, he does actually leave the area (which Daria wanted in the first place) and, as stated, wants to go look at his goalpost and remind himself how he's admired. (Ironically, later episodes would make it clear that Daria does deliberately try to keep people away.)
- No one, including Tommy, said a word about where he’d been or what he’d done since he left high school. He was out of town, for certain, as Kevin said Tommy was “coming back to Lawndale.” All he focused on when visiting Lawndale and the whole center of his ego was his high school football career, now years in the past.
- A coma that lasts for six days as a result of a head trauma qualifies as a severe brain injury! Who let him play after that?!