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Marshawn Lynch at Super Bowl Media Day: 'I'm just here so I won't get fined'

By Matt Bradwell
Seattle Seahawks Marshawn Lynch at Super Bowl XLVIII Media Day in 2014. UPI /John Angelillo
Seattle Seahawks Marshawn Lynch at Super Bowl XLVIII Media Day in 2014. UPI /John Angelillo | License Photo

PHOENIX, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch had a simple message for reporters on Super Bowl XLIX Media Day: "I'm just here so I won't get fined."

"I'm going to answer every question with the same answer," Lynch warned reporters in at the U.S. Airways Center in Phoenix.

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"'I'm just here so I won't get fined.'"

At that point it was unclear Lynch had already provided his lone answer, but any confusion quickly dissipated.

"I'm just here so I won't get fined," Lynch offered when asked about his health.

"I'm just here so I won't get fined," he responded to inquires into his idiosyncratic behavior.

"I'm just here so I won't get fined," the Pro Bowler even told a child.

Lynch has famously hid from reporters at 2014's Super Bowl Media Day, concealing his appearance as much as possible and physically avoiding areas he felt likely to be noticed. Only the NFL Network's Deion Sanders was able to get any semblance of an answer from Beast Mode in 2014, when Lynch flatly told the League's official media arm, "I'm all about that action, boss." Since then, Lynch has refused to speak with the media at length, costing him $100,000 in league fines.

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When Sanders questioned Lynch this year, Lynch's answer was a simple one: "I'm just here so I won't get fined."

Lynch did salute a few fans who shouted "Good luck," but again stayed mum other than to reiterate his aversion to fines.

"You better make more with your time," Lynch said, one of his few breaks from script, when he was down to two minutes left in the three-and-a-half minute conference.

"Cat videos or dog videos," a reporter asked as time wound down, a reference to Lynch's recently released Skittles ad.

"I'm just here so I won't get fined," Lynch steadfastly replied.

At the end of the "interview" Lynch shouted "Time!" and literally dropped a microphone -- the drop was an accident, however, not flaunting. When a concerned reporter told Lynch she could be fined for the damaged equipment, the running back rushed to check on the microphone, promptly ending his time with the media.

In a few instances Lynch said "don't" in place of "won't." All told, he repeated the phrase, or variations of it, 27 times.

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