I Will Read Every Story About How Terrific Marshawn Lynch Is

You’ve now got your reading assignment for the day: In the Seattle Times, reporter Jayson Jenks asked a handful of Seahawks if they have any particular memories of Marshawn Lynch being a cool guy. It seems they like talking about their former teammate as much as I like hearing about him.

The cutest story is probably punter Jon Ryan sheepishly introducing his mother to Lynch after a particularly brutal game, not wanting to bother him, and Lynch ended up talking to Ryan’s mom for a half hour. But the most emotional is about what Lynch did following the career-ending neck injury to Ricardo Lockette.

Here’s Earl Lockette Sr., Ricardo’s father, describing Lynch’s first visit to the hospital, when he provided some much-welcomed aid and optimism.

“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 here’s how Ricardo Lockette remembers it:

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.”

I want to hang out with Marshawn Lynch. Do you think he will be my friend?

Go read the rest of it.