PHOENIX – He’s just about that echo, boss.
Some things don’t change at Super Bowl Media Day. A corpulent kook from a local radio station asked his questions wearing nothing but a barrel. There was a Batman, and lunatics with GoPro cameras attached to football helmets and shoulder pads.
And, for the second straight year, the “Will Marshawn Talk?” watch.
The answer was yes. Actually, the answer was, “I’m here so I won’t get fined.” That’s what the Seattle Seahawks running back replied to every question posed to him – 29 times – before he split from his podium at US Airways Center.
He said without emotion. He said it with a friendly smile. He said it patiently, dolefully, happily. Occasionally he adjusted the script by insert “just” between “I’m” and “here.”
He even said it to the NFL Network’s Deion Sanders, who got a few exclusive nuggets from Lynch at last year’s Media Day – but not this year.
“I’m just here so I won’t get fined,” Lynch told Sanders.
And he won’t. The NFL had reportedly threatened to hit Lynch with a $500,000 noogie if he didn’t show and speak, but told the Seahawks the non-response response was OK. Nor did he have to stay the whole hour. So, after not quite five minutes of his charade, he called “Time,” and left his chair.
Nearby, Lynch’s backup, Robert Turbin – one of the Seahawks who fielded in their questions on the arena floor – was asked if he’d like to take Lynch’s empty chair.
“I think I’ve had Marshawn’s back with media enough times,” Turbin said.
Belichick, the anti-Lynch
Legendarily taciturn himself, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick fairly blooms in the craziness of Media Day. While Lynch answered a young questioner with his line du jour – delivered with a smile, however – Belichick was a virtual softy when the daughter of Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo asked him what his favorite stuffed animal is.
“I like a little puppet that you can kind of put your fingers in,” he said. “It’s a little monkey, and then he can talk.”
Awwwww.
Krafty answer
After delivering an angry broadside at the NFL for its investigation into deflated footballs at the AFC Championship Game, New England owner Robert Kraft was in a more genial mood when he joined the Patriots at Media Day.
He wasn’t even going to be riled by Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman’s remarks that the Patriots wouldn’t be penalized because Kraft is an NFL power broker closely allied with commissioner Roger Goodell – reflected in the picture the two posed for at Kraft’s home on the eve of the AFC game.
“I think Richard Sherman is a very smart marketing whiz,” Kraft said.
He explained that the party used to be thrown by the NFL but had been discontinued, and that any time the game is in Foxboro the Patriots host an event for sponsors. That, he said, allows the league to grow its revenues.
“I think Mr. Sherman understood that he’s the biggest beneficiary, because they get over 50 percent of the revenues. So he didn’t go to Harvard, but Stanford must be pretty good because he figured it out,” Kraft said.
‘I’ll hold the ball …’
… and you kick it, Charlie Brown. Seahawks punter Jon Ryan is the holder for placekicker Steven Hauschka, who might want to reconsider his intemperate remarks Tuesday lest Ryan give him the Lucy treatment sometime.
“I think some punters have gotten really good,” he said, “but as a whole, I don’t think they’re at the level of field-goal kickers. I think there’s more put into the field goal at a younger age. I don’t think kids start learning to punt until a little later.”
Mirror, mirror
Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett isn’t stressing over the Super Bowl, and it’s not because Seattle has been here and won before.
“I’m never stressed, man,” he said. “I wake up every day and look in the mirror and say, ‘Damn, I look good.’”
