I am not sure when the light bulb went off in Marshawn Lynch’s head, I know for me brilliant (ok decent) ideas come to me 9 times out of 10 when I accidently piss off someone. As Stiletto Jill of Jocks and Stiletto Jill always told me, it is better for them to hate than be indifferent. I think for a while the media in general was indifferent to Marshawn Lynch trying to deal with them as little as possible.
They didn’t really need Marshawn Lynch, because they had motormouths like Richard Sherman, Doug Baldwin, Michael Bennett and a head coach in Pete Carroll who loves to talk. At some point that indifference became annoyance towards Lynch.
Maybe, it was become the NFL kept fining him, maybe it was because he was getting these awesome memes made or maybe it was other players in other leagues using his interview style (all about execution).
Whatever the case, the media got annoyed and the media by every definition is a gang, not a violent one, but a corporate one. What do gangs do when you don’t play by their turf rules, they do a drive by. In this case it isn’t with guns, but Tweets and stories.
You will see ridiculous stuff like this a lot on Twitter today, but at some point Marshawn realized that by egging them one he would become a bigger star. Because, now he is toying with the media and using it for his benefit.
Look at the commercials he is doing.
These commercials don’t happen if he is giving standard answers to the media. They threatened to fine him for wearing a Beast Mode hat, so what does he do? He wears the hat again and now everyone wants a Beast Mode hat. Look at all the buzz he is generating for himself, if you didn’t know Marshawn Lynch last week, you surely do today. He is being talked about on not just sports, but news networks. If I was an executive at Skittles, I’d be sending Lynch the finest hookers in Arizona to show my appreciation. Lynch will be living off this decision for the rest of his life and don’t be shocked when he retires some network offers him millions to just say a few words each week. That is how it works.
I know what you are thinking.
“Don’t the media know they are being played, why do they ever talk to him?”
Of course, they are being played, but a little known secret about the media. They don’t really care if Marshawn Lynch speaks or not, what they care about is how much attention they get for themselves or their outlet for their hot takes about Marshawn Lynch.
Go look on ESPN, SI, Fox Sports, Yahoo Sports, NBC Sports etc etc. You won’t have to search far for stories on the man who is giving one sentence answers to every question. Everyone claims to hate Skip Bayless, but there are a lot more Skips out there than traditional journalists. Those traditional journalists see the money Skip and Stephen A. are making and decided the best way to make a come up is to become a media celebrity. I find nothing wrong with that at all, but don’t high horse, because it is very transparent what you are attempting to do.
We are all winning here. Lynch is expanding his brand, the media getting their hot takes out, the networks having something to talk about, the NFL getting massive attention for their already massive Super Bowl and I am also winning.
Lynch articles are doing 10x the numbers of any other Super Bowl articles, so I hope Lynch never talks to media again, he is paying for me a vacation right now.
What are the three hottest topics in sports right now?
Lynch vs. Media
Mayweather vs. Pacquiao
Deflategate
One is about a fight that should have happened six years ago and the other two have are reality show style stories.
If Lynch wants to talk he can, you saw his interview with Michelle Williams, but he is choosing not to talk, because in the words of Triple H it is good for business.
Is the Business of Beastmode flourishing?