Why Does The NFL Want Marshawn Lynch To Be A Spokesperson?
KCBS News Anchor Stan Bunger (who along with KCBS Sports Anchor Steve Bitker are the on-air duo known as KCBS Sports Fans) offers his unique sports analysis.
To quote Marshawn Lynch, I'm here so I won't get fined.
Just kidding--I love pretty much every aspect of my job. One of them is getting to ask questions. Like, "What is the NFL's thing?" Why does this multibillion dollar organization feel compelled to try to turn guys who carry a football for a living into public speakers?
Lynch's Super Bowl Media Day performance turned an already idiotic event into something worthy of the avant-garde theater. Eugene Ionesco would have been proud to have written the script.
Lynch, the Seattle Seahawks star from Oakland (and Cal), doesn't want to talk to the media. Doesn't have much to say, apparently, and really, who wants to hear from a guy who doesn't have much to say?
Well, the NFL seems to. A charitable view would be that the league needs its stars to flog the product to sell tickets and boost ratings, the way Hollywood sends actors out to pitch their new movies.
Really? What Marshawn Lynch (or anybody else, for that matter) has to say will mean more people watch the Super Bowl? I doubt it.
A less-charitable view would be that the NFL isn't about to let a lowly football player buck its rules. Thus, Lynch is ordered under penalty of yet another fine to show up and answer questions.
He did, in his way, but the real question remains: What is the NFL's thing?