RENTON — Marshawn Lynch fulfilled his media obligations Wednesday by meeting with a group of reporters at his locker. The Seahawks’ mercurial running back just didn’t care to talk about football. Or much else.
“Why all y’all crowding me?” Lynch said shortly after the NFL announced he was being fined $100,000 for violating the league’s media policy.
Lynch didn’t speak to reporters after Sunday’s loss to the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium, instead giving a phone interview with NFL.com’s Michael Silver and talking to former teammate Michael Robinson, who now works as an analyst for the league network. Apparently talking to the NFL house reporters didn’t satisfy the league.
That was Lynch’s third recorded violation of the media policy outlined in the collective bargaining agreement.
Lynch was fined $50,000 last season for not speaking to reporters, though the league agreed to hold the fine in abeyance under the condition Lynch cooperate with media moving forward. Because he violated the agreement, the league will collect last season’s $50,000 penalty and tack on $50,000.
Lynch was available Wednesday before practice. He sat at his locker in sweats and a backward hat as media members asked him a series of questions about his health, about Sunday’s foe and his good deeds, all of which he sidestepped by answering with unrelated talk about his gold-bottomed cleats and favorite music.
“You ever heard of Lil Boosie?” Lynch said. “He got this song called ‘No Juice.’ You should listen to that song. Y’all got no juice.”
During halftime against the Chiefs, Lynch stayed on the sideline to receive treatment and stretching from Seahawks trainers while the rest of the team went to the locker room. Lynch declined to give a reason.
“(How) did you feel about me staying on the sideline and not going back into the locker room,” Lynch said. “(How) did you feel about it?” Reporters deferred answering.
Standing at his locker next to Lynch, tight end Cooper Helfet chimed in.
“I thought it was a good idea,” Helfet said. “He needed to get some treatment on his back.”
Asked to clarify if it was his back or knee that tightened up, Lynch began describing his blue and green shoes. Lynch didn’t practice Wednesday.
“I really like my cleats, though. They pretty cool, man. I really like my cleats,” Lynch said. “I’d like to be able to play in these. Nice cleats.”
Lynch continued talking about his cleats when asked how he felt about the Seahawks setting a single-game franchise record with 350 rushing yards in a Nov. 9 home win over the Giants.
“Man, hey look. When they did my cleats, they put this little squiggly line thing on there,” he said. “It was like an M and an L. For Marshawn Lynch. It’s pretty nice. Pretty nice.”
The media session capped an odd 48 hours for Lynch. Coming back from a players’ event Tuesday at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, he and WR Ricardo Lockette returned a lost wallet to Marysville resident Jason Lynch (no relation) after seeing him drop it at a gas station. Lynch and Lockette drove to Jason Lynch’s house to return it. When he wasn’t home, they knocked on doors until someone answered, then dropped it off with his neighbor.
“I didn’t really see it as a super big deal,” Lockette said. “I just saw it as a normal day, returning his wallet. We didn’t think that anybody would know about it. We didn’t think that he would know or anything. We just left with no names. We just left this wallet with this lady.”
The woman eventually figured out the good Samaritans were Lynch, who declined to give her his name, and Lockette. Jason Lynch expressed thanks through Facebook and Twitter, and the story went viral.
@MoneyLynch thank you so much for going outta your way to return my wallet!A Lynch taking care of a Lynch #GOODKARMA pic.twitter.com/19tTI211bQ
— Jason Lynch (@206Lynch) November 19, 2014
Lynch and Lockette joined a group of Seahawks that visited Marysville-Pilchuck High School Tuesday. In October, five students were killed after a shooting in the school’s cafeteria.
Injury notes
MLB Bobby Wagner missed the last five games with what’s been gently described as a toe injury. He returned to practice Wednesday (limited), but not before offering a detailed description of how he injured it during an Oct. 12 against the Cowboys.
“They told me what I did at halftime. I tore the ligament and it was like a factor to my sesamoid joint,” he said. “But they numbed it up and I felt great on it at the time, so I gave it a go and I finished the game. And after that it swelled up and I couldn’t walk.”
LG James Carpenter (ankle) was a limited participant in Wednesday’s practice after missing the past two games.
Up next
The Seahawks (6-4) will have a chance to make up ground on the Cardinals (9-1) when they host Arizona Sunday. The Cardinals own a three-game lead over Seattle in the NFC West with six games left in the regular season. The teams play again Dec. 21 at University of Phoenix Stadium.
4 Comments
At this point Marshawn’s stance is becoming a distraction to the team and that isn’t fair to them. If he has a disorder that causes anxiety when he’s with the media that’s one thing. But as best as can be determined from what he’s said, he doesn’t trust the media after how he was treated by them when he was in Buffalo. If that’s the case that’s not fair to other media outlets and what happened in Buffalo is, at least in part, his fault.
Sometimes it’s fairly amusing listening to his off the wall quotes but to me it’s something of a slap in the face to the fans who support the team and his play when he blows off a fine of $100,000. If he want to throw money away he can throw it my direction. I have bigger needs than he does apparently.
Ah, the SeaHawks are a team of grown men. ML is a respected teammate and his off the wall quotes or no quotes are having no negative effect on the team.
As a fan you can say or feel as you please, ah kinda like ML in a way. He does as he does and appears to handle the consequences well. I hope the fine money goes to charity. The NFL doesn’t need the money.
I imagine the fine money goes back to the league or the team. They should donate it to charity.
clearly a media lynching. just ask lil’ boosie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qFp3M8SMt8