[ad_1]
Sunday will mark the first time Marshawn "Beastmode" Lynch will play against the Seahawks since he retired following the 2015 season, only to return to the NFL as an Oakland Raider in 2017.
There are the stories about marshawn lynch they can tell and they can not.
And while we'd love to hear the stories that he'd like to train teammates and coaches prefer to keep to themselves, the ones they let slip are good enough.
They are stories that resonate again this week as the Seahawks come face-to-face with Lynch between the lines for the first time since he retired following the 2015 season, only to return as a member of his hometown Oakland Raiders in 2017. (Lynch was back in Seattle for an exhibition game in August but did not play).
Lynch will lead the Raiders' rushing attack against the Seahawks this Sunday in London, and the Seahawks know exactly what to expect from their teammate who has become a favorite fan during his six seasons as a Seahawk.
Most Read Sports Stories
"'Said receiver Doug Baldwin, one of eight players left on Seattle's active roster who played with Lynch. "But that's just Marshawn."
Lynch is 32 now, but he has not caught up with him yet – he ranks in the NFL in rushing with 331 yards and a 4.3-yard average per carry, just off the 4.4 he had a Seahawk from 2010-15.
"He looks great," said Seahawks coach Pete Carroll. "He looks healthy and aggressive."
Then Carroll Lynch in 2017 during an exhibition game between the Seahawks and Raiders in Oakland he mentioned what great shape Lynch appeared to be in and said, "Why did not we see you, you know?"
Such was the yin and yang of Lynch during his Seattle years.
If he was beloved by his teammates and as productive as he could ever ask on Sundays, he could be a challenge with the coaches and the organization. (Entertaining as it might have been to the outside, many in the organization would have preferred avoiding things like, "I'm just here so I will not get fined.").
Given a question that has been suggested by Carroll Smirked and said, "I do not know if that's the case." "Then after a break, he smiled and added," I was not there in Buffalo (where Lynch played before his trade to Seattle).
But in the locker room, there was never a discouraging heard about Lynch, nor will there ever be.
Baldwin spent about 14 minutes talking to reporters Tuesday, mostly about Lynch, whom he has called the best teammate he's ever had.
"There's a lot of stories," said Baldwin, who joined the team in 2011, the year after Lynch was acquired in a trade from the Bills.
Then he began to tell one.
"One of the simplest stories was a receiver, a young receiver on the team, and Marshawn had a backpack and the young receiver was like, 'Dang, that's a nice backpack. Where did you get it from? '' 'Baldwin said. "And he literally takes it off his back, dumps it all out and says, 'Here, you can have it,' grabbed his stuff and goes to his locker. Just as simple and plain as that.
"Marshawn, it did not matter who you were, and who he was – he would literally give you his backpack off his back. I thought that was just the epitome of the man that he was. "
Pressed as to who the receiver was, Baldwin paused.
"Um, me," he said. "It was me."
Baldwin said he "just liked the color" of the backpack, which he later gave Paul Richardson a teammate.
Then, Baldwin said, there was the time Lynch bought all the offensive linemen 50-inch TVs when he hears Justin Britt complain that the one he had at home was too small.
And the stories of Lynch giving financial advice?
All true, Baldwin said.
"I still work with the lady," he said. "It's been incredible."
A few lockers over, J.R. Sweezy – a starting guard for Lynch 's last four years in Seattle – laughed when asked if he had a favorite Lynch story.
"I've got quite a few of them," he said.
He preferred to keep it to football.
"He was just dude that guy, he never went down," Sweezy said. "It just made you want to go a little extra because you knew it was going up and pushing that stack extra 4 or 5 yards … just his style, it was fun to be a part of."
Carroll preferred to keep it to play, too, when asked for a favorite memory of Lynch.
"Probably the New Orleans game (the 2011 divisional playoff), '' Carroll said, has Seattle's game won 41-36, highlighted by Lynch's 67-yard" Beastquake "run.
Then after a break, Carroll said, "There is a lot of memories I just got off the list. I'm giving you one that's more obvious than I do not have to explain. "
Maybe for the book, someday.
That Lynch could be "a handful" was not always a secret. There was the time he wore a Kam Chancellor jersey to practice during Chancellor's holdout to the obvious chagrin of Carroll, who made it clear it would be a one-time thing.
There were Lynch's almost annual hints at retirement and an eight-day holdout prior to the 2014 season that resulted in a rare concession by the team – if a small one – to guarantee an additional $ 1.5 million in his contract.
And there was the final month of his Seahawks career, when Lynch decided to join the team in a playoff game in Minnesota because he was not healthy enough – and doing so after Carroll had said on his radio that Lynch was "Going to play." (Not to mention the controversy over whether Lynch should have gotten the ball on the final play of Super Bowl XLIX, which added some tension to the relationship).
Lynch played his final game as a Seahawk the following week, in a playoff defeat at Carolina, then retired during the Super Bowl, a few weeks later.
Asked about the end of Lynch 's Seattle career, Baldwin responded with an answer that seemed to be a little strained.
"I do not really care about how it ended," Baldwin said. "Because I know the man. My relationship with Marshawn and his relationship with those who do not change, no matter if he is in a different country, it does not matter. It's still Marshawn, and at the end of the day that's our brother. "
Baldwin said Lynch's return in 2017 was no surprise.
"I talked to him after a Thanksgiving thing with his family, they were out playing football, '' Baldwin recalled. "He called me and said, 'Man, I think I've still got it.' I said, 'Sit your ass down.' But that's what he wanted to do. He loves the sport. I think the thing that he missed most was the locker room. He is being around who are like-minded, who are striving for something. That part is hard to separate you from the game. "
Carroll, also, could never question Lynch's commitment between the lines.
He recalls how he badgered Seattle general manager John Schneider to try to acquire Lynch months before the team finally pulled off the trade (Lynch had been relegated to Buffalo's offense in 2010 after a coaching change). Seattle finally got Lynch in October 2010 for a fourth-round pick and a 2012 fifth-rounder (those picks turned into offensive lineman Chris Hairston and Tank Carder linebacker, each one out of the NFL)
The Seahawks had "the need for a touchable attitude and toughness, and he was all of that," Carroll said of Lynch, who remains fourth in Seattle with 6.337 yards.
Carroll insists he'd happily relive again.
"I think we did it OK," Carroll said. "I have nothing but respect for that guy. It will be fun playing against him. I like playing against guys I like. ''
Source link
