DeMarcus Ware: Mic Up Marshawn Lynch On Sunday!
The Seahawks running back is way chattier on the field.
Broncos defensive end DeMarcus Ware has a suggestion for the folks at CBS Sports that might make Sunday’s Super Bowl a touch more entertaining: Put a mic on Marshawn Lynch. Yes, Ware is talking about the notoriously stoic Seahawks running back, who has become as famous for stiff-arming the media as for his yards after contact.
“The man does talk!” Ware told Maxim on Saturday, during an interview in Scottsdale sponsored by the Hugo Boss Parfums/NFL “Success Beyond the Game” campaign. Along with Clay Matthews and Victor Cruz, Ware appears in a series of Hugo Boss ads touting three men’s fragrances, Hugo Man, Boss Bottled and Boss Bottled: Night. “People think he’s a bad guy, but he’s not,” Ware continued. “He just doesn’t want to talk to the media. But when he’s out there playing, he’s going to talk to every single defensive guy — ‘I’m going to run you over,’ you know, this and that.’ So mic him up and let everyone really see that he’s not a quiet guy at all.”
Indeed, Maxim found the same thing when we spoke with Lynch the other day about his Beast Mode clothing line.
Even so, Ware sees no problem with the NFL’s decision to forcibly parade Lynch before the cameras. “That’s the publicity game,” he said. “You are a player in the NFL, but the NFL crest means more than you. If the NFL is saying, ‘I’m going to give you the media, the sponsorship opportunities, things that you wouldn’t have if you weren’t playing for us,’ why not use those things to make yourself a lot more successful and more enticing to the world?
“I mean, some guys don’t want to talk, and I can totally understand that,” he added. “But if you write on a piece of paper and that’s in your contract and it’s an obligation, you have to figure out something and say, ‘Hey, I’m only going to answer three questions, and then I’m done,’ and just go from there. There’s always a way to get around the rules.”
Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz agrees. “He’s no different than anyone else,” Cruz says of Lynch. “Everyone has their own personal preferences on how they want to speak the media. Everyone’s entitled to their own thoughts and opinions. But I do think he has to show up!”
After all, if Lynch got away with giving the media the silent treatment, the whole fragile edifice would crumble, Cruz points out. “Because, hey, if Marshawn is not showing up, I’m not showing up!”