Marshawn Lynch Retires in Most Marshawn Lynch Way Possible

Trust Marshawn Lynch to announce his retirement from the NFL while the rest of the country is focused on something entirely different. A known introvert who has been notoriously dismissive of the sports media throughout his career, the reserved Lynch chose a perfectly coy moment to announce his retirement to the world – on his own terms.

Late in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl, Lynch simply tweeted a picture of his lime green cleats hanging from a telephone wire, along with a “peace sign” emoji as the accompanying caption. Check out his tweet for yourself here: https://twitter.com/MoneyLynch/status/696525541826924546.

The post passed by the Twittersphere relatively unnoticed at first. But in a world of instant communication, much of the nation had learned of Lynch’s intentions within minutes of the game ending. The announcement was followed by a string of appreciative replies from fellow players, suggesting this is about as official as the news could get.

Some have pointed out that the tweet was curiously posted just after 9:45pm ET, one whole calendar year to the minute since the Seattle Seahawks opted to pass instead of run on the goal line; a decision that cost them their second straight Super Bowl championship.

Lynch has repeatedly stated he bears no ill will towards coaches for the play call, so it’s pretty likely that no passive aggressiveness was intended. What Marshawn also didn’t intend to do was upstage Peyton Manning, who refused to announce his retirement after the game, drawing the following day’s attention to Lynch instead.

The announcement was so perfectly Lynch, who has always let his actions do the talking, even off the field. On the field, he’s always just “been ‘bout that action, boss.” If this is in fact the end of his career, he will be remembered as one of the most dominant running backs of his era.

There is concern that his abbreviated resume won’t land him a spot in Canton, but the man certainly boasts no shortage of highlight reel plays to exhilarate new fans for many years to come.