http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/michael_silver/10/25/marshawn.lynch/index.html
From left to right, Marshawn Lynch, Robert Jordan and Michael Silver hanging out at Cal's Memorial Stadium.
He is the Man With the Golden Grill, and when Cal halfback Marshawn Lynch flashes his Fort Knox smile, there is a zero percent chance that I will fail to do the same (sans grill).
Given that my wife and I are both proud Cal alums, and our three kids have been properly propagandized, Lynch is certainly the most popular man in our household, and his approval rating got even higher last Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium.
After essentially putting the Bears on his back while scoring a pair of gorgeous, crunch-time touchdowns in Cal's 31-24 overtime victory over Washington, the Heisman candidate took his showmanship a step further. Jumping into a golf cart used to collect injured players, Lynch celebrated the game-clinching interception by linebacker Desmond Bishop (the Bears' other No. 10) by zipping madly around the field, finally parking in front of the student section while striking a dramatic victory pose.
Two days later in Berkeley, I tried to get Lynch, who earned Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Week honors for his performance (150 rushing yards, four catches for 53 yards on two sprained ankles), to take me for a ride. Instead, I stayed stationary at the world's most beautifully situated sports facility while kicking it with Lynch and his talented teammate and cousin, junior wide receiver Robert Jordan. And a killer, panoramic view of the San Francisco Bay did not stop me from grilling the most golden of Bears.
Silver: You two are cousins and are both from Oakland -- what are your first memories of playing football together?
Lynch: Me reversing field, making sick moves, jumping over people on one leg and landing on the same leg.
Jordan: The first time we ever played on the same team was when we got to Cal.
Lynch: He tried to get a little piece of me at summer camp.
Jordan: Yeah, we were at Cal's football camp and they had me playing DB. He cut into the secondary and I just dove at his legs. I made it look like I was making an effort, but it was just camp. I didn't need to be trying to hit somebody; I was trying to catch some TDs and make an impression.
Lynch: That he did do.
Silver: OK, so you guys have this thing when either of you makes a big play -- you make these hand signals, sometimes to people in the crowd. What's up with that?
Jordan (placing his middle fingers over his index fingers on both upraised hands): Twist and hook, baby. That's 'Family First.' All positive. We have to correct people all the time.
Silver: You mean, because they think it's a gang sign or something?
Lynch: Yeah, exactly. And that's not it at all. It's something for the family -- it lets us know we're well-respected and well-connected. The people in our family know what it means, and it ain't nothing like what some people think.
Silver: I hear a rumor you guys like country music.
Lynch: Please.
Silver: What's in your CD player right now?
Lynch: Shaadie Boy. He's a little-known rapper from Vallejo, but he's about to pop. Anything in this town or the surrounding areas that's pumpin', we listen to it.
Silver: All the way back to Too Short?
Jordan: What you know about Too Short?
Silver: Dude, I been listening to Todd Shaw since y'all were in diapers. I put the 'O' in 'O.G.'
(They look at me as though I may be the least cool human on the planet. Which, at this particular moment, I almost certainly am.)
Jordan: We were slappin' some of that earlier today. The new one is called 'Up All Night.'
Silver: Right. He wrote that thinking about me and my Cal friends after you guys win the Pac-10. Anyway, which one of you has the most tattoos?
Jordan: I've only got three. Shawn's got, what, five? Seven?
Lynch: Eight, and counting. My little cousin (former Cal safety Virdell Larkins), he's got the most. He's got 11.
Silver: The big one on your upper back says 'Mama's Boy,' right? You're not hiding from that at all.
Lynch: No. No reason to. People where I'm from know what mama means.
Silver: Talk to me about your postgame celebration in the golf cart? How long were you planning that one?
Lynch: It was just something that came up at the last minute. I was over by the cart, on the sidelines, and I saw my boy Desmond take off with the interception (toward the opposite end zone). You feel me? I'm thinking, "Oh, my boy's tired. It's a perfect little situation." The key was in the cart, so I started it up and went down there to pick him up. But he had a crowd around him by then, and I realized, I ain't gonna be able to get to him. So I just decided to have some fun.
Silver: What was that move at the end?
Lynch: That's how we do it here in Oaktown. I was gonna ghostride it for a minute at the end, but it ain't got no neutral, so it would've just kept rollin'. So I just did that move -- I got it from my boy Hurp. His name is Dion Hurp, and he does it in any kind of vehicle we ride in. Buick. Chev. Boxes. Whatever.
Silver: What's up with all that gold in your mouths?
Jordan: It's my jewelry. Just like you got on that watch, I got on my teeth.
Lynch: I been rockin' my s--- since the sixth grade. You feel me? It's just like something that was goin' on and kind of stuck with me. It was never a problem 'til I got here and did a couple of interviews. Then people started to make a big deal out of it.
Silver: Edgerrin James, who is one of my favorite people in football, still has a grill after these years. Do you guys plan to do the same?
Lynch: I heard a couple of stories about Edgerrin, how people wanted him to take his stuff out when he got to the pros. Not even comparing myself to Edgerrin, because he's on a whole other level, but knowing how he stayed true to what he is means a lot. I don't want to take mine out. I want people to see it not as a bad thing but as a part of me.
Silver: OK, so we all love your quarterback, Nate Longshore. But does he realize that when he leaves two tickets every week for Jessica
Simpson, he has no chance in hell of actually getting her?
Jordan (laughing): Ah, man, don't say that. I'm an encouraging person. I think he should keep leaving 'em if that's gonna make him play well.
Silver: My sense is that, off the field, Nate doesn't have quite the game that you guys do. If Jessica actually did show up, do you think either of you could hook it up?
Jordan: For Nate?
Silver: No. For yourselves.
Jordan: If she comes, I gotta try to put Nate on it. But if she's choosing, then you might have to go with it.
Lynch: Straight up. I mean, you can't be handcuffed in that situation. That's not part of the deal.
Jordan: What I love about our team is that we're unified, though. We have all different types of people from different backgrounds, and everybody brings something different to the party.
Silver: Right. Like (senior guard) Erik Robertson, who threw that sweet block on your overtime touchdown run. He has long, dyed black hair and more tattoos than both of you put together.
Lynch: I call him a punk rocker. I love ERob.
Silver: He's engaged to one of my other all-time favorite Cal athletes, (Pac-10 Pitcher of the Year) Kristina Thorson. Do you think that if the Pac-10 title was decided by a fight between players' girlfriends we'd have a good chance of winning?
Jordan: With Kristina? Hell yeah.
Lynch: (Offensive lineman) Mike Tepper's girlfriend's a handful, too. So you never know.
Jordan: They'd be pooned!
Silver: Pooned?
Jordan: That's the new word coming out.
Silver: I'll look it up on urbandictionary.com. Speaking of coming out, you know what the next question is: After this season, you'll have a decision to make. You could declare for the NFL draft and have a shot at some quick cash, or you could STAY IN SCHOOL. Which way are you leaning?
Lynch: I'm not even thinking about it. Right now I'm just playing the season one game at a time.
Silver: Ha, if nothing else, you already sound like a pro. And they do call you "Money." Where did that come from?
Jordan: Cause when they give him the ball, it's money.
Lynch: Actually, I went down to the Cali-Florida (high school) bowl game, and I got cool with my boy Chi-Lo, (offensive lineman) Thomas Herring, who is now at SC. He and some other guys from down South didn't think we balled up here in Northern Cal, and I guess he didn't think the name Marshawn Lynch was all that appealing. At the first practice I made a move and he goes, "Damn, that was money right there. You what what? I got it. You're 'Money Lynch.'" He was giving out nicknames left and right -- he called my cousin Virdell "Lil' Vicious." Believe me, I wasn't complaining about mine.
Silver: That Nov. 18 game at SC should be slightly charged. Your thoughts on the Trojans?
Lynch: They're SC. They've got the same hype they've had since I've been in college. It'll be hella fun.
Silver: More fun than the opener at Tennessee, I hope. What happened in Knoxville?
Jordan: That's just a game in our past. There ain't nothin' we can do but get it out of our system. Give Tennessee credit. They played good. We didn't.
Silver: Last thing -- what was up with those horrendous neon-yellow jerseys you guys wore against Oregon, and will we be seeing them again?
Jordan: I'm pretty sure you will before the season is out. I like 'em.
Lynch: Me too. They're shinin'. It's something new. Maybe for the Big Game.
Silver: I think we should go with black-and-gold, like the old California license plate.
Lynch: That'd be nice. What I really want is to wear those Joe Roth (era, circa 1975) jerseys -- the royal blue with the bear stickers on the helmet.
Silver: That would be outstanding.
Lynch: We're full of those kind of ideas. We've just got to run them by the big man. Because at the end of the day Coach Tedford has the final say on everything.
From left to right, Marshawn Lynch, Robert Jordan and Michael Silver hanging out at Cal's Memorial Stadium.
He is the Man With the Golden Grill, and when Cal halfback Marshawn Lynch flashes his Fort Knox smile, there is a zero percent chance that I will fail to do the same (sans grill).
Given that my wife and I are both proud Cal alums, and our three kids have been properly propagandized, Lynch is certainly the most popular man in our household, and his approval rating got even higher last Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium.
After essentially putting the Bears on his back while scoring a pair of gorgeous, crunch-time touchdowns in Cal's 31-24 overtime victory over Washington, the Heisman candidate took his showmanship a step further. Jumping into a golf cart used to collect injured players, Lynch celebrated the game-clinching interception by linebacker Desmond Bishop (the Bears' other No. 10) by zipping madly around the field, finally parking in front of the student section while striking a dramatic victory pose.
Two days later in Berkeley, I tried to get Lynch, who earned Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Week honors for his performance (150 rushing yards, four catches for 53 yards on two sprained ankles), to take me for a ride. Instead, I stayed stationary at the world's most beautifully situated sports facility while kicking it with Lynch and his talented teammate and cousin, junior wide receiver Robert Jordan. And a killer, panoramic view of the San Francisco Bay did not stop me from grilling the most golden of Bears.
Silver: You two are cousins and are both from Oakland -- what are your first memories of playing football together?
Lynch: Me reversing field, making sick moves, jumping over people on one leg and landing on the same leg.
Jordan: The first time we ever played on the same team was when we got to Cal.
Lynch: He tried to get a little piece of me at summer camp.
Jordan: Yeah, we were at Cal's football camp and they had me playing DB. He cut into the secondary and I just dove at his legs. I made it look like I was making an effort, but it was just camp. I didn't need to be trying to hit somebody; I was trying to catch some TDs and make an impression.
Lynch: That he did do.
Silver: OK, so you guys have this thing when either of you makes a big play -- you make these hand signals, sometimes to people in the crowd. What's up with that?
Jordan (placing his middle fingers over his index fingers on both upraised hands): Twist and hook, baby. That's 'Family First.' All positive. We have to correct people all the time.
Silver: You mean, because they think it's a gang sign or something?
Lynch: Yeah, exactly. And that's not it at all. It's something for the family -- it lets us know we're well-respected and well-connected. The people in our family know what it means, and it ain't nothing like what some people think.
Silver: I hear a rumor you guys like country music.
Lynch: Please.
Silver: What's in your CD player right now?
Lynch: Shaadie Boy. He's a little-known rapper from Vallejo, but he's about to pop. Anything in this town or the surrounding areas that's pumpin', we listen to it.
Silver: All the way back to Too Short?
Jordan: What you know about Too Short?
Silver: Dude, I been listening to Todd Shaw since y'all were in diapers. I put the 'O' in 'O.G.'
(They look at me as though I may be the least cool human on the planet. Which, at this particular moment, I almost certainly am.)
Jordan: We were slappin' some of that earlier today. The new one is called 'Up All Night.'
Silver: Right. He wrote that thinking about me and my Cal friends after you guys win the Pac-10. Anyway, which one of you has the most tattoos?
Jordan: I've only got three. Shawn's got, what, five? Seven?
Lynch: Eight, and counting. My little cousin (former Cal safety Virdell Larkins), he's got the most. He's got 11.
Silver: The big one on your upper back says 'Mama's Boy,' right? You're not hiding from that at all.
Lynch: No. No reason to. People where I'm from know what mama means.
Silver: Talk to me about your postgame celebration in the golf cart? How long were you planning that one?
Lynch: It was just something that came up at the last minute. I was over by the cart, on the sidelines, and I saw my boy Desmond take off with the interception (toward the opposite end zone). You feel me? I'm thinking, "Oh, my boy's tired. It's a perfect little situation." The key was in the cart, so I started it up and went down there to pick him up. But he had a crowd around him by then, and I realized, I ain't gonna be able to get to him. So I just decided to have some fun.
Silver: What was that move at the end?
Lynch: That's how we do it here in Oaktown. I was gonna ghostride it for a minute at the end, but it ain't got no neutral, so it would've just kept rollin'. So I just did that move -- I got it from my boy Hurp. His name is Dion Hurp, and he does it in any kind of vehicle we ride in. Buick. Chev. Boxes. Whatever.
Silver: What's up with all that gold in your mouths?
Jordan: It's my jewelry. Just like you got on that watch, I got on my teeth.
Lynch: I been rockin' my s--- since the sixth grade. You feel me? It's just like something that was goin' on and kind of stuck with me. It was never a problem 'til I got here and did a couple of interviews. Then people started to make a big deal out of it.
Silver: Edgerrin James, who is one of my favorite people in football, still has a grill after these years. Do you guys plan to do the same?
Lynch: I heard a couple of stories about Edgerrin, how people wanted him to take his stuff out when he got to the pros. Not even comparing myself to Edgerrin, because he's on a whole other level, but knowing how he stayed true to what he is means a lot. I don't want to take mine out. I want people to see it not as a bad thing but as a part of me.
Silver: OK, so we all love your quarterback, Nate Longshore. But does he realize that when he leaves two tickets every week for Jessica
Simpson, he has no chance in hell of actually getting her?
Jordan (laughing): Ah, man, don't say that. I'm an encouraging person. I think he should keep leaving 'em if that's gonna make him play well.
Silver: My sense is that, off the field, Nate doesn't have quite the game that you guys do. If Jessica actually did show up, do you think either of you could hook it up?
Jordan: For Nate?
Silver: No. For yourselves.
Jordan: If she comes, I gotta try to put Nate on it. But if she's choosing, then you might have to go with it.
Lynch: Straight up. I mean, you can't be handcuffed in that situation. That's not part of the deal.
Jordan: What I love about our team is that we're unified, though. We have all different types of people from different backgrounds, and everybody brings something different to the party.
Silver: Right. Like (senior guard) Erik Robertson, who threw that sweet block on your overtime touchdown run. He has long, dyed black hair and more tattoos than both of you put together.
Lynch: I call him a punk rocker. I love ERob.
Silver: He's engaged to one of my other all-time favorite Cal athletes, (Pac-10 Pitcher of the Year) Kristina Thorson. Do you think that if the Pac-10 title was decided by a fight between players' girlfriends we'd have a good chance of winning?
Jordan: With Kristina? Hell yeah.
Lynch: (Offensive lineman) Mike Tepper's girlfriend's a handful, too. So you never know.
Jordan: They'd be pooned!
Silver: Pooned?
Jordan: That's the new word coming out.
Silver: I'll look it up on urbandictionary.com. Speaking of coming out, you know what the next question is: After this season, you'll have a decision to make. You could declare for the NFL draft and have a shot at some quick cash, or you could STAY IN SCHOOL. Which way are you leaning?
Lynch: I'm not even thinking about it. Right now I'm just playing the season one game at a time.
Silver: Ha, if nothing else, you already sound like a pro. And they do call you "Money." Where did that come from?
Jordan: Cause when they give him the ball, it's money.
Lynch: Actually, I went down to the Cali-Florida (high school) bowl game, and I got cool with my boy Chi-Lo, (offensive lineman) Thomas Herring, who is now at SC. He and some other guys from down South didn't think we balled up here in Northern Cal, and I guess he didn't think the name Marshawn Lynch was all that appealing. At the first practice I made a move and he goes, "Damn, that was money right there. You what what? I got it. You're 'Money Lynch.'" He was giving out nicknames left and right -- he called my cousin Virdell "Lil' Vicious." Believe me, I wasn't complaining about mine.
Silver: That Nov. 18 game at SC should be slightly charged. Your thoughts on the Trojans?
Lynch: They're SC. They've got the same hype they've had since I've been in college. It'll be hella fun.
Silver: More fun than the opener at Tennessee, I hope. What happened in Knoxville?
Jordan: That's just a game in our past. There ain't nothin' we can do but get it out of our system. Give Tennessee credit. They played good. We didn't.
Silver: Last thing -- what was up with those horrendous neon-yellow jerseys you guys wore against Oregon, and will we be seeing them again?
Jordan: I'm pretty sure you will before the season is out. I like 'em.
Lynch: Me too. They're shinin'. It's something new. Maybe for the Big Game.
Silver: I think we should go with black-and-gold, like the old California license plate.
Lynch: That'd be nice. What I really want is to wear those Joe Roth (era, circa 1975) jerseys -- the royal blue with the bear stickers on the helmet.
Silver: That would be outstanding.
Lynch: We're full of those kind of ideas. We've just got to run them by the big man. Because at the end of the day Coach Tedford has the final say on everything.
