Unpopular opinion alert: Marshawn Lynch is being immature

[GFang]

Marshawn strikes me as a fun-loving guy who feels he got betrayed by the media/fans somewhere along the way, and now chooses to just shut himself off. He enjoyed a warm welcome in Buffalo, up until his hit-and-run incident on a local woman. You began hearing whispers of "he's a thug from Oakland". From then on, his stint in Buffalo was all downhill. Another incident occurred in which he supposedly stole $20 from a cop's wife at a restaurant. Once people in Buffalo saw him as a "thug", he was done with that city. I'm not sure why he's become the same way in Seattle. Maybe it was the DUI incident in the Bay Area. Maybe people saw videos of him getting his grill, and rather than perceive it as him expressing his unique and playful hobby, saw it as him being a low-class thug.

On one hand, I feel he is being a bit immature. On the other hand, I understand why he no longer wishes to open up to others and have his words misconstrued or used against him.

 

[iigakusei]

The only people who have a problem with him not talking is the media. The fans don't care. I wouldn't like him less if he never did another interview. And once again....stomp on the best player in the NFL with intent to injure - 70K. Don't do interviews properly - 100k. That to me is the bigger problem.

 

[YYZHawksFan]

But eventually they'll tire of the game and just go away.

Lynch doesn't have to speak if the media isn't there.

agreed. he has to make himself available and after the media finally gets that he is not contractually obligated to answer their questions the way they want or even answer them, they will no longer as questions but ML will still be there for them as required by the NFL.

immatur? please. smart, clearly smarter than the media. which is why they are so upset. they enjoy manipulation of players and clearly don't like being manipulated.

Not doing something your employer clearly wants you to by getting around it via a technicality isn't immature..? Hmm

your argument fails because 1. ML's employer is not the NFL, 2. if PA had an issue with how ML was responding, perhaps we would see a change and 3. you assume there are obligations to do more than the NFL is entitled to.

technicality is just an pejorative way to say a person is obligated to do more. i mean, if my contract says I have to pay you $4.00 on every monday. saying that paying you at 11:59pm on Monday night is via a technicality is just a pejorative way to criticize a person for not doing something in the way you think they must even though they have no obligation to.

if want to be paid at noon on Monday, you should put that in your contract. and the NFL does not. why the F is that ML's problem?

 

[Scottemojo]

I think it is a legit topic.

I heard a bunch of upset media people talking about it Monday and Tuesday. Mostly on ESPN radio. The underlying current of their discontent with him is not a problem with him, it is that they are fully aware that if others copy him, it is a threat to their jobs. That sentiment was plain to me.

Lets face it, they have primarily made careers out of saying little of substance, quoting players to manufacture taglines, but with little real content. They are coming down on Lynch with hobnailed boots for the same reason they hated Bob Gibson and Ted Washington: giving them nothing makes them irrelevant. Giving them cliches doesn't bother them in the least. GIving them nothing threatens their existence.

As far as what his "employer" wants, the OP is way offbase. he refused to do interviews, got fined, and has done interviews ever since. He is in compliance with his "employer" now. I'm not sure that matters to the OP, who does not seem to be acknowledging that Marshawn is actually doing interviews, even if they are one or two word answers.

 

[Jeremy517]

Marshawns boss does, that's the whole bloody point. I don't get why people don't see this. Marshawns job isn't to decide whether he should be answering questions or not, his job is to answer them because it's in his contract and his boss told him to

It is in the CBA not in his contract, and he has no choice because the NFL is a monopoly. If he doesn't like the rules, there is no equivalent league in which he can play.

 

[YYZHawksFan]

Marshawns boss does, that's the whole bloody point. I don't get why people don't see this. Marshawns job isn't to decide whether he should be answering questions or not, his job is to answer them because it's in his contract and his boss told him to

It is in the CBA not in his contract, and he has no choice because the NFL is a monopoly. If he doesn't like the rules, there is no equivalent league in which he can play.

and the CBA does not make the NFL ML's boss. the OP's suggestion and implication of that is absurd.

 

[YYZHawksFan]

the rule is "must be available to the media".

http://www.profootballwriters.org/nfl-media-policy/

 

[TwistedHusky]

At some point, you have to look at the cost vs the benefit.

I doubt he is choosing to be immature at the cost of $100,000 or even $50,000 each pop.

It seems like a lot of lefts to make a right if so.

He seems visibly agitated and becomes even more so when you increase the # of cameras/reporters. (Which may explain the difference between Buffalo, in Buffalo most of his interviews that I have seen were with only a few people interviewing at a time, if not just one - here he is a focal point and so attracts a flock of reporters).

Maybe the Buffalo event was a trigger to him, maybe something happened here...but just simple observation makes it clear that the situation is very stressful for him. The question of why is another issue, I have known a few famous people and they always had issues with the difference between their personal selves and public. It did mess with them that people 'loved' them but didn't even know them - so they could never figure out who would have just liked them normally anyway.
Maybe it is that, maybe something else.

Not being a doctor I can't diagnose social anxiety syndrome.

I can tell that someone is visibly bothered, anxious and upset.

I really doubt this is Marshawn just acting out, holding a grudge or being immature. The benefit vs cost in that vanished a long time ago.

 

[Escamillo]

This is the NFL's doing. They fined him 100k for not speaking to the press, so now he speaks to the press. In a way that tells the NFL to go screw itself, and the NFL can't do a damn thing about it. lol
He's meeting his obligations. Doing the minimum to meet them, so what?/
Maybe the media should cease asking him questions since he gives them nothing.

Now, what I would do were I Marshawn, is after each game, identify an attractive female reporter in the press pool that gathers around his locker, and only provide real answer to questions from her. To everyone else, I would give the "I'm thankful" style retorts. That would be funny. lol

 

[RolandDeschain]

He knew he was contractually obligated to deal with the media regularly when he decided to declare himself eligible for the NFL draft.

 

[Tical21]

I still believe he has received orders from the Seahawks not to talk. His first few months here he gave some atrocious interviews, and I think somebody pulled the plug behind the scenes to save possible embarrassment for the franchise.

 

[Escamillo]

I think it is a legit topic.

I heard a bunch of upset media people talking about it Monday and Tuesday. Mostly on ESPN radio. The underlying current of their discontent with him is not a problem with him, it is that they are fully aware that if others copy him, it is a threat to their jobs. That sentiment was plain to me.

That's too damn bad for them, were it actually true, but it's not. Even of others do copy him, it will only be those that are uncomfortable with the media, and so give short, lame answers anyway. There will always be those that love to talk to the media (Sherman, Wilson, Baldwin, Earl, Wagner, Chancellor, Kearse, Bennett, etc), so it will never be the case that so many adopt Lynch's tactic such that it would be a threat to the stenographers' jobs.

I'm glad the media is upset. It will only fuel the team's fire. Michael Irvin made the point last year, during the couple of weeks leading to the Super Bowl. That the media was forcing the team into a corner, trashing Sherman for talking too much and trashing Lycn for talking too little, and Irvin said all that did was make them even more amped to play.

 

[YYZHawksFan]

He knew he was contractually obligated to deal with the media regularly when he decided to declare himself eligible for the NFL draft.

make himself available is what he was aware of.

the NFL has no grounds to object to the way he answers questions as he complies with making himself available. he was fined for not and lost the appeal of the fine.

 

[LymonHawk]

What's wrong with being immature? I've done it my entire life and it serves me well. :les:

RJC: Not everyone licks their boss' behind. YMMV, obviously. :roll: (With kudos to Rocket.)

 

[RolandDeschain]

He knew he was contractually obligated to deal with the media regularly when he decided to declare himself eligible for the NFL draft.

make himself available is what he was aware of.

the NFL has no grounds to object to the way he answers questions as he complies with making himself available. he was fined for not and lost the appeal of the fine.

Actually, the NFL completely and totally DOES have grounds to object to how he answers questions to the media. Almost every job in existence carries that right for its employer over its employees. Opinion writers for newspapers and such are some exceptions, but how many employers CAN'T fire you or discipline you if you were to go stand in front of the media and told them your employer could go *ahem* itself, for instance?

The NFL has the right, in writing, to discipline and even terminate players for conduct detrimental to the league. Very open-ended. Consider that along with the NFL media policy, and I don't see how you can even think that the NFL has no grounds about anything relating to players interacting with the media...

 

[bigskydoc]

He is not being immature. He is giving Bulls answers to Bulls questions.

He even gave them crystal clear instructions (at least crystal clear to anyone who has a brain) on how to interview him in his first interview. He started off by talking about his foundation then, when the media started piling on, he reverted to the Yeah answer.

I guarantee that if one of those media whores asked him about his foundation, about what he is doing in Oakland, etc he would open up and talk about it.

He just doesn't want to play the lazy media game of giving them soundbites to cut and paste into their pre-written stories.

- bsd RPA

 

[tom sawyer]

OMG

This AGAIN?!!

What they are askings Pete, Russ, Sherm and .... Lynch is stupid sh**!!

"What did you think of that play where...?"
"Are you glad you won?"
"Do you play harder than you used too?"

...okay.. you get the point?

So stupid responses are quite appropriate. The others don't do it, Lynch does.

Now for my favorite saying lately...

IT IS WHAT IT IS

 

[Basis4day]

And then purposely trying to get a story out of him when you KNOW he doesn't want to talk?
I think THAT is why he's being immature. He made his case, yet they STILL come over and bother him knowing he won't give them any REAL answer.
The local radio guys know not to even try.
It's like, "hey lets go see if we can make him react".

The point is that the media is allowed to interview him, according to marshawns boss. Marshawn is not allowed to just blow them off, according to marshawns boss. That's all that matters

And since they're allowed to interview him i ask again, what are these questions that everyone is dying to hear the answers to?

Again, that is beside the point. Maybe the media should ask him better questions, but this point this changes nothing

The "point" of an interview is to ask questions of your subject with the intent of getting a meaningful response for the purpose of informing your audience. You're calling him immature because he won't give an interview for the sake of giving an interview but have no questions that you would like answered?

You're the audience. The interview requirement is for you. What do You want him to answer?

 

[volsunghawk]

I believe people on here are letting their love of lynch and the Seahawks cloud their judgment on this situation. I think most on here would be call anyone doing a similar thing in their own industry an "entitled brat" or something similar. So why not hold marshawn to similar standards?

Actually, most of the time in most industries, those types of people are called "eccentric," especially when the work they do is phenomenal work.

There's the main job, and then there are small, little obligations that are overall mostly meaningless but make for good window dressing. Marshawn's obligation to talk to the press is of the latter variety, and if you want evidence, find a guy who's REALLY good at public speaking and handling the press and telling clever and engaging anecdotes, but who is really bad at football and see what kind of contract he gets offered by a team.

Marshawn's issue with the press is like an engineer ignoring his company's dress code. If he's really good at what he needs to be really good at doing, management is never going to really worry about whether he's wearing a tie.

 

[Chapow]

Russell should write him up some platitude flash cards that he can read from:

-One game at a time.
-We're just playing for each other.
-They're a great team, I expect a competitive game.
-All the credit goes to my teammates.

Because hearing those things over and over again are absolutely critical to my enjoyment of the game.

Need to throw in a couple of generic comments thanking God.

This would be the best post game badgering session (oops, I mean interview) ever.