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Even after retirement, the legend of Marshawn Lynch continues to grow. In an excellent Seattle Times piece, Jayson Jenks interviewed a handful of Seahawks players about their memories of Marshawn Lynch. They are fittingly glorious.
There’s the story of Jon Ryan, the punter, who shyly introduced his mother to Lynch after he had a poor game. Lynch ended up talking to Ryan’s mom for a half hour. Defensive end Cliff Avril spoke about how Lynch has been to both trips that his foundation has taken to Haiti to build a school. Linebacker Bobby Wagner told a story of Lynch’s tutelage from his rookie year. Center Justin Britt says Lynch is always at his daughter’s birthday parties.
However, the most emotional story comes from retired receiver Ricardo Lockette, who was nearly paralyzed in a game against Dallas.
Here’s Earl Lockette Sr., Ricardo’s father, retelling of the harrowing time, via the Seattle Times:
“A nurse comes up and says, ‘We don’t know much about football, Mr. Lockette, but there’s a guy outside who says he needs to be in here. He says he plays with Ricardo, and his name is Marshawn Lynch.’
What Ricardo didn’t know is that Marshawn peeked in the room and saw he was in there, in the bed, strapped down, couldn’t move, and he cried like a baby. Marshawn did. I won’t tell you everything he did, but he took a couple steps back and soaked those tears up, and he went in there and made my son feel like he could run and jump.
And then on top of that, we didn’t know nothing about nothing. He asked us, ‘How long are you guys going to be here?’ We said, ‘We don’t know. Until he gets up and walks again, we’re not leaving.’ He said” ‘I’ve got you guys. You don’t have to worry about anything.’ When I say he meant that, he really did. He took care of us for a period of time to make sure we didn’t have to worry about getting places, transportation, anything. He did that.”
And of course, Ricardo’s own version:
Lynch made Lockette laugh so hard that Lockette eventually told him: “Bro, you’re going to kill me! I haven’t had surgery yet.”
“He just told me, ‘Don’t be in here crying,’” Lockette said. “’Don’t be doing all that crying because Beast Mode don’t cry, and if you cry, I’m going to cry.’ I can visually picture that. I enjoyed that.”]
Marshawn Lynch is nearly mythological at this point.
https://twitter.com/bomani_jones/status/791304223451443204
https://twitter.com/seanjwagner/status/791046434854318080
