Marshawn Lynch on why he couldn’t stand “Pete Carroll”

Published on October 7, 2010 by T.C.     

Running back Marshawn Lynch practiced with the Seahawks for the first time Wednesday, and afterwards stopped to chat with the media about his trade to Seattle. Lynch was very soft-spoken for most of the 10-minute interview, but opened up and was pretty darn funny at times, particularly when talking about his opinion of Pete Carroll back when Lynch played at Cal.

Were you surprised by the trade since it hadn’t happened through four weeks?

“Just talking to [Bills GM] Buddy [Nix] about how I wasn’t going to be going anywhere, so when it finally did happen, it was a big surprise, but at the same time, a little excitement as well.”

How are you approaching this trade? As a fresh start?

“I feel like this change is a great opportunity for me. In football, but just in life as well. Everything that happened with me, I feel is an opportunity, the things that come out of it, just the way I handle it. This is another one, and I plan to handle this situation just as good and I handled the rest. And I say that because I’m still here standing.”

On his past legal troubles:

“That was a thing of the past. I feel if you often revisit your past, you get stuck there, and that’s not what I’m about. I’m about moving forward, so what happened in the past has happened. I grew from it, it was an opportunity for me to grow and help me become a better person, which it did, so now I’m here in Seattle to show y’all that good person.”

What is the strength of your game?

“The strength of my game? Football, period. Football, period. Line me up anywhere on the field and I’ll get it done.”

“I’m just here to come in and help the team accomplish some of the goals that they have, which I know are the same as mine, and that’s winning. I haven’t been fortunate in the past to do that, so here’s another opportunity for me to go out and accomplish something I haven’t accomplished at this level yet.”

Lynch said he first heard about the trade not on his cell phone or the internet, but from a teammate

“I don’t do Twitter, I don’t do Facebook. I’m an old-school, prehistoric guy. If they still made pagers, I’d probably get one of those instead of having a cell phone.”

How hard will it be to catch up with the Seattle offense?

“With the zone scheme, it’s pretty much the same as what I ran in Buffalo. With football, there’s not too much difference as far as running the ball. It’s just the different kind of terminology that they use, that’s something I’m going to have to adjust to. But those guys, Leon and Justin, they’ll be able to catch me up to that real quick.”

Your thoughts on Pete Carroll when you played against him in college?

“I couldn’t stand him. I couldn’t stand him, man. Straight up, I couldn’t stand him. He was one of the only coaches you’d see running up and down the field like he was playing in the game. Running up, jumping, high-fiving his players. They’re over there dogging us, and you’re just sitting there watching them have all this fun, like, ‘Man, what is he doing? Run me to that sideline so I can hit one time.’ But man, I just always thought he was a fun guy, somebody that likes to have fun and win, which is something he’s had a career of doing—winning. . . I could probably get used to it a little better now that I’m on the same side.”

Tags: Better Person, Cal, Cel, Excitement, Fresh Start, Game Football, gm, Good Person, Hadn, Legal Troubles, Marshawn Lynch, Minute Interview, Nix, Pete Carroll, Running, Seahawks, Seattle, Surprise