Is Marshawn Lynch again using Twitter to hint at his football future?
It’ll forever be a piece of Seahawks lore that Marshawn Lynch announced his retirement with a wordless Tweet — a photo of cleats dangling over a telephone wire and a “peace out’’ emoji.
Some are now wondering if Lynch again has used Twitter to hint at his future. Saturday night, Lynch re-tweeted a Tweet noting that one of his old playlists included a song called Oakland Raiders.
A simple re-tweet or a sign that he’s about to become an Oakland Raider?
Among those thinking the latter is Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, who wrote Sunday morning that “More than two years removed from Super Bowl XLIX, Lynch is close to becoming perhaps not the face of the nation or the face of the NFL but a player who captures the imagination of a fan base and who provides the league with an unlikely and compelling story line.”
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As detailed Friday, there are a number of steps that have to be taken before Lynch could become a Raider.
First, because he has two years remaining on his contract — and the contract would simply pick up where it left off were he to return — he has to officially apply for reinstatement from the NFL and be placed back on Seattle’s roster, a step that as of Friday he had not taken (a source also said Lynch had not asked the team for his release, as had been reported. But any release also can’t happen until he first gets reinstated by the NFL, and the Seahawks have not been informed any steps in that regard have been taken).
Then Seattle and the Raiders would have to try to work out some sort of trade, unless the Seahawks did indeed decide just to release Lynch — which at some point they undoubtedly would, not wanting to carry his $9 million salary cap hit for 2017.
The Seahawks would also likely ask Lynch to pay back $2.5 million of the $7.5 million signing bonus he received in 2015. Teams don’t have to ask for repayment of bonuses. But it is believed that the Seahawks told Lynch they wouldn’t ask for any of it back when he retired, on the assumption that he would stay retired.
But if Lynch returns to play, it’s believed the Seahawks will ask for at least $2.5 million of the bonus back.
Lynch has made more than $50 million playing in the NFL, so he can handle that if he’s motivated enough to want to play again — and all the smoke out there seems to indicate he has interest in playing for his hometown team.
Adding to the odd Twitter hints was a Tweet Sunday morning from Oakland punter Marquette King, tweeting at Lynch that “Aye @MoneyLynch I got your cleats back 4 ya brah…” with a picture of someone taking cleats off of a telephone wire.
https://twitter.com/MarquetteKing/status/843498269716037636