Former Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch still has nightmares about Malcolm Butler’s interception at the goal line that gave the New England Patriots a 28-24 victory over the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX.
The interception occurred at the goal line on a play where many thought Lynch would get the football. Seattle was driving down the field towards the end of the fourth quarter on a drive that took seven plays and accumulated 79 yards. Lynch had run the football for four yards to the New England one-yard line on the previous play.
What followed was the biggest play of Butler’s career, and it gave New England their fourth Super Bowl title. Lynch appeared on the I AM ATHLETE podcast and described his feelings on the play.
“So when it comes to the play call, and that was the type of situation. Yeah, I’m hot as (expletive). I’m boiling,” Lynch said. “And the only thing I can do was think, ‘I need to get in his face, for I’m about to laugh at (him) so hard.’ Because I know for a fact, like, if we run that ball four times and we don’t score, everybody on our team, from the front office to the (expletive) janitors will say, ‘Well, (expletive). Yup, well, we deserve to lose that (expletive).’
“So then what happened is you in that mindset of (expletive) should have gave me the ball, should have gave me the ball—this, that and the third. But what it let me do was it really got me the opportunity to see how people really felt about me. So when I walk in that building after that (expletive) and …(expletives) was hot. That was a level of respect for me.”
A Super Bowl win over the Seahawks would set the stage for another string of Patriots titles.
One has to wonder how things might have looked if Seattle ran the football on that play. It’s something that Lynch apparently still thinks about, and it does make you wonder what the trajectory of the league would have looked like had Seattle scored a touchdown and won the game.
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