Marshawn Lynch: "Beast Mode", Love Him Or Hate Him?

I was listening to the local sports talk radio station recently and an interesting question came up—Do you like Marshawn Lynch?

I was intrigued by the question because after the departure of McGahee, Lynch became a focal point of the Bills offense. The city immediately embraced him since his first snap as the starting running back. 

Then the phone calls came in.

"Kick him off the team", "He's a disgrace to Bills fans everywhere", "What ever happened to having respect for the game?" There seemed to be one common factor between all of those people that complained about Marshawn. 

They were all over the age of 30.

When I sat back and thought about it, all of those people had legitimate points about Marshawn. He was slapped on the wrist for a hit-and-run for a female on Chippewa; downtown Buffalo's stretch of bars. 

It should be noted that this girl was not left there to "die", because she was not seriously hurt (I hardly count seven stitches to be seriously injured).

Marshawn maintains that he didn't even know that he hit her, and some find that hard to believe. If you hit someone though, would you leave your dented car in the driveway for the world to see on the following morning?

Lynch was also arrested for having an unregistered firearm in his trunk recently, resulting in a three game suspension.

He's on thin ice with Goodell, but Lynch sounds serious when he says he's learned his lesson and that he doesn't want to be removed from the game again.

It's very understandable that a portion of Bills fans don't want him on the team. But there's something about Marshawn that makes the younger fans gravitate to him—he's good, and he looks like he's having a blast out there.

Marshawn is always smiling and goofing around on the sidelines. He seems to have a great rapport with the offense, and even messes around with DE Aaron Schobel (for those of you who have never met Schobel, he's not the kind of guy that wants to be messed with).

Remember when Chad Ochocinco came out with a new touchdown dance every week?  Every Monday at the office, people would ask "Did you see Chad Johnson do CPR on the football?", or "Putting with the pylon...genius".

Before he became a raging ego-maniac, Ochocinco was a lot of fun because he had fun at what he did.

I have a theory on why the younger crowd likes Marshawn and other controversial players more so than the older crowd.

Although both groups are mature enough to handle the antics of athletes and understand the consequences of athletes' actions, the majority of the older crowd has kids at impressionable ages.

I hear from several parents that their kids look up to certain players. I wouldn't want my child looking up to a lot of the stars that command kids' attention nowadays.

A handful of these high profile athletes have been arrested for drugs, guns, and assault.  Some have multiple children with multiple women. Others are just competitive on the field and want to win and are perceived to be a "bad guy."

Nevertheless, I don't have kids, and I appreciate these stars for their talent on the field.  Marshawn has made some dumb mistakes, but I believe him that he's truly sorry. I don't think we'll see his name in the headlines anytime soon.

And if I ever saw Marshawn out somewhere, there's no doubt in my mind that I'd tell him that he's one of my favorite Buffalo Bills.