He was sitting on the team bus outside of Arrowhead Stadium, preparing to head to the airport after a long, draining and disappointing day. A few minutes into a telephone conversation following the Seattle Seahawks' 24-20 defeat to the Kansas City Chiefs, Marshawn Lynch was asked a question about his future with the defending Super Bowl champions -- and he metaphorically pumped the brakes.
"Do I think I'll be gone after this season?" Lynch repeated, pausing to consider the question. "I don't know, man. The Seahawks, their front office gets in the media; they talk a lot. I don't talk too much. I just play the game.
"If they have something going on, I don't know about it."
Sometimes, however, actions speak louder than words, and Lynch, one of the sports world's most eccentric stars, seemed to make a statement about the disconnect between him and his bosses midway through Sunday's game. While the rest of the Seahawks filed through the tunnel and into the visitors' locker room at the conclusion of the second quarter, Lynch remained on the field for the entirety of the 12-minute halftime.
Lynch, who ran for 124 yards on 24 carries, later explained to my NFL Network colleague Michael Robinson -- his former Seahawks teammate -- that fatigue was the impetus for the decision not to go to the locker room. Said Robinson: "He told me he couldn't walk."
The real question: Was Lynch expressing his displeasure in the wake of recent reports, citing anonymous sources, that that the Seahawks plan to give him his walking papers after this season?
According to a source close to the 28-year-old running back, such reports have contributed to his deteriorating relationship with Seattle coach Pete Carroll, as Lynch partially blames him for the existence of such stories and for the possibility that his Seahawks tenure might end after the 2014 season.
