Agent confirms Marshawn Lynch intends to retire

Oakland native Marshawn Lynch will not be returning to the National Football League in 2016, announcing his retirement during the Super Bowl last night.

The picture that was tweeted was of Lynch’s #beastmode cleats hanging from what appears to be a telephone wire signifying he’ll be hanging up his career, literally and figuratively.

ORIGINAL STORY: The biggest question for the Seahawks heading into the offseason is essentially the same as the biggest question during the season: Is Marshawn Lynch coming back or not?

Instead of exploring the possibility of extending his career with another team, Lynch has decided he’ll retire after 10 years in the NFL.

Lynch, selected in the first round of the 2007 draft by the Bills, ran for 9,112 yards and 74 touchdowns in his nine-year career. He arrived in Seattle in 2010 and his attitude and bruising running became the foundation for two straight NFC championships and the franchise’s first Super Bowl title. He was limited to seven regular-season games and one in the postseason, due largely to an abdominal injury that required surgery.

The tweet from Lynch also backed statements from January 22 by Seattle general manager John Schneider in a pair of radio interviews that indicated Lynch was leaning toward retirement. Both quarterback Russell Wilson and cornerback Richard Sherman tweeted yesterday their farewells to their ex-teammate. He scored double-digits rushing touchdowns in each season between 2011 and 2014, including leading the league in running scores in the final two years of that streak. The run caused such an uproar among Seahawks’ fans that the movement from the stadium registered on a seismograph more than 100 yards from the stadium.

It was in Seattle that Lynch’s career really took off, and where he established himself as one of the greatest playoff running backs in recent memory.

He was then traded to the Seattle Seahawks.

Lynch rushed for 3,230 yards and 29 touchdowns during his time at the University of California. “He has a cool, calming presence out there”, Wilson said at the end of the season. He may have been more of a headache off the field than anyone let on during his time in Seattle, but he’ll ultimately be lauded as the running back that got the Seahawks to a place they had never been before.

What, then, did Lynch spend during the last nine years?