Even if he is considering a comeback, Marshawn Lynch won’t return to the Seahawks
Sep 9, 2016, 10:14 AM | Updated: 10:59 am
(AP)
Marshawn Lynch has carried the ball for the last time as a Seahawk.
Apparently that needs to be stated bluntly in the wake of Thursday’s report that Lynch is “up in the air” on a potential return.
That’s not to question the legitimacy of the report. He may very well be considering it. Then again, he was up in the air on playing going back to 2013 when he told teammates that he would retire if the Seahawks in fact won a Super Bowl.
To try and predict what he’ll do is silly. To wonder if he’ll return to the Seahawks is insane, and I say that as someone who is in position to milk that conversation dry.
People in Seattle love Lynch, and rightfully so. I’ve covered the team for more than a decade now, thereby defrocked of rooting interest, and I will tell you that he is one of the five most intriguing people I’ve ever been around. He took a picture with my mom less than two weeks ago, and he couldn’t have been nicer. I bought her a Beast Mode T-shirt.
And as someone who works in sports-talk radio, the easiest thing to fill three hours of a Friday show would be to ask if Lynch should return to the Seahawks and announce that the phone lines are open at (206) 421-3776.
But that would be disingenuous. Lynch isn’t coming back to Seattle.
That’s not based on a super-secret source. It’s not based on a personal conversation. It’s my understanding of the situation and my reputation covering this team. Lynch is not playing for the Seahawks again.
The only question about his time with the Seahawks is the transactional conclusion. Will it end with his retirement or will he be released?
Because it’s possible that he’ll get the itch to play football again. It’s possible that he’s always been so tight-lipped about his plans that it’s given rise to this speculation. Either way, it undoubtedly helps awareness of his clothing line and the retail store that is being planned for Seattle.
But the Seahawks have moved on. They’re not paying him $9 million to play for them. They might not pay him $2 million to play for them.
The cold, hard math is that he wasn’t the Seahawks’ best running back last year. The Seahawks are not going to pay him six times what the rest of their running backs will make this season based on what he did two years ago.
The question is, does Lynch really want to be Shaun Alexander? Or Edgerrin James? Or Franco Harris? Does he want to be a Hall of Fame talent who has a swan song with an absolute stranger of a team?
No one would begrudge him if he did. Sports is about testing your limits, and for a guy whose career was built on a defiant refusal to go down, it would be completely understandable if he insisted on another opportunity.
But that opportunity is not going to be in Seattle, and while it might be fun to entertain or debate that thought, it’s not going to happen.