Sherman entered Brooklyn College, and tried out for football again, but this time Coach Lou Oshins took him on as a quarterback, recalling, "His dedication to football was absolute, astonishing." When Sherman's mother saw how violent the game was, however, she made him quit. He and Oshins eventually made his mother relent. During the summer before his sophomore year, while Sherman waited on tables in the Catskills, Oshins mailed Sherman weekly sections of Clark Shaughnessy's book about the new T-formation, leading Sherman to refer to himself as "a correspondence school quarterback". Sherman had also taken a football with him to the Catskills, and spent time throwing it at trees to improve his accuracy.