Keith Strudler: The $ound Of $ilence

Money is a strong – no a fantastic motivator. Don’t want to slow down on the highway? You do because of the threat of a $200 speeding ticket. Working weekends? You might for time and a half. Outside of maybe food and certain unmentionables, money gets the job done better than any other positive or negative reinforcement.

Such certainly was the case for Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch, who will be a feature of the Seahawks’ offense in the Super Bowl this Sunday. Lynch attended Tuesday’s mandatory media day, where herds of press have unfettered access to Super Bowl players and coaches, for one reason and one reason only. He went because, in his words, “so he won’t get fined.” In fact, that’s the exact answer he gave to every question asked of him during his approximately five minutes in the building. Apparently doing this spared Lynch a $500,000 fine. I don’t care how much money you earn, and Marshawn Lynch earns a lot, but a half a million dollars is a lot of money. So he showed up for what he perceived to be the minimum amount of time, gave a remarkably honest but unsatisfying answer, and went back to his hotel, or wherever athletes go the week of the Super Bowl. This, more than any actual answer of substance from any player at media day, received the lion’s share of press. If that’s not an argument for the event’s obsolescence, then I don’t know what is. On a positive note, Marshawn Lynch’s silence is perhaps the only thing that could knock deflate-gate off the front page. So the week of the Super Bowl, the two most covered stories are marginally underinflated footballs and a guy who won’t talk.

Lynch has earned his share of fines in the past, many around his reticence to speak. He’s paid $100,000 over the past year for not cooperating with the press, half of that from last year’s Super Bowl silence. He’s avoided reporters all year, violating NFL rules mandating player availability both after each game and throughout the practice week. And for good measure, Lynch was just fined $20,000 for grabbing his crotch during a touchdown celebration in a playoff win against the Packers. So while he may not be talking, his actions have spoken loud and clear. For the record, the NFL has preemptively said any crotch grabbing in the big game would come with a 15-yard penalty. So for all fans of lewd and lascivious behavior, your best hope is for a Seattle blowout, when 15-yards on a kickoff wouldn’t matter. And for the record, Lynch grabbing his crotch is nowhere as bad any of the Go Daddy commercials, including the one they just pulled.

Seattle’s head coach Pete Carroll has predictably defended Lynch’s media shyness, lauding the “uniqueness” of all his players. And in all fairness, cornerback Richard Sherman talks enough for pretty much the whole team. From a coaching perspective, player performance comes on the field, not at a podium. And as long as his team keeps winning, Carroll is wise to defend his players’ choices.

For the league, it’s a different story. The NFL mandates player accessibility as part of its business model. As much as players think their jobs are fully predicated on athletic performance, and to some extend they are, the league’s solvency depends on an industry of stars, stars whose luminance is bolstered by work both on and off the field. The reason the NFL is the 800 pound gorilla it’s grown to be isn’t simply because people love football, because they do. It’s also because they get to consume their passion literally 24/7. Marshawn Lynch’s belief that his job ends where the turf does defies that economics, an economy that supports ballooned salaries for star players.

Oddly enough, Lynch hasn’t been demonized by the general public for his inaccessibility. Perhaps given the current distrust of NFL management, Lynch represents the true anti-hero, a sympathetic figure giving the finger to the man. Make no mistake, this is no deflate-gate, a scandal seemingly protected by the NFL brass.

But know this. Marshawn Lynch might win this battle, but he won’t win the war. In the land of disposable NFL labor, by design, the league will make Marshawn talk, or suffer the consequences. That can happen through fines, new rules, or long term suspensions. And if you think they won’t, just know that the NFL has fined 230 players over $25 million and suspended them 215 games this year. That’s this year. From the league’s perspective, they’ve seen this play before. And they know how it ends.

Of course, it probably won’t come to that extreme measure. Because as we all know, money is one heck of a motivator.

The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.