Playoff Heroics Should Make Officially Retired Marshawn Lynch a Hall of Famer

You say it twice and it has, like, 10 times the impact. That's what running back Marshawn Lynch did when he confirmed he was retiring. 

"I'm done," Lynch said during an interview with 60 Minutes Sports that will air Tuesday night on Showtime, per ESPN.com's Sheil Kapadia. And then he repeated that forceful, blunt phrase, which was fitting for a guy who made a living being both forceful and blunt. "I'm done."

"Now it's time to watch my cousins do their thing. ... I'm retired. Is that good enough? Which camera do you want me to look into? This one?" he continued, before tripling down on that declaration. "I'm done. I'm not playing football anymore."

So let's give the 30-year-old the benefit of the doubt by identifying him as a "former Buffalo Bills and Seattle Seahawks running back." Let's finish the inscription on his pro football headstone. 

MARSHAWN TERRELL LYNCH
SEPT. 9, 2007 - JAN. 17, 2016
REST IN FOOTBALL PEACE

Lynch and I have never met—the only time we were in each other's company, he spurned me and about 4,000 of my media colleagues in the lead-up to Super Bowl XLVIII—but I'd like to eulogize his career anyway. So here's my speech. 

Thanks for being here in Medford, Oregon, which sits almost exactly halfway between Marshawn Lynch's hometown of Oakland and his adopted hometown of Seattle. Special thanks to the entire populations of both cities for making the trip, along with everybody Marshawn played with in Berkeley, Buffalo and Seattle. As well as most of his opponents, who famously feared and respected him. 

I'd say it's a shame no members of the media showed up to pay their respects, but that's probably the way Marshawn would have wanted it if he were here. Of course, he's not. He could be, but instead he's studying horticulture in Morocco or hiking in Kazakhstan or teaching English in Nepal. Something like that. Maybe all of the above. 

The fact that the media—who rather inexplicably act as the sole gatekeepers for the Pro Football Hall of Fame—didn't get along with Marshawn and didn't show up today is probably a bad omen for his Hall of Fame chances, but I'd like to make it clear that Marshawn Lynch belongs in Canton. 

Marshawn certainly didn't rub everyone the right way. He was a crotch-grabbing, Skittles-guzzling oddball who refused to adhere to media and marketing standards. But that was kind of fitting when you consider he was as singular and stubborn on the field as he was off of it.

He was a hard-nosed running back who either didn't get the memo or didn't care that being a hard-nosed running back had gone out of style, carrying his team and its young quarterback to back-to-back Super Bowls in an era dominated by non-running backs who either throw the football, catch the football or are charged with trying to prevent their opponents from throwing or catching the football. 

In the last decade, Lynch and Ray Rice are the only Pro Bowl backs who have led their teams to a title. 

In my mind, if you can't do justice to telling the story of the history of professional football without mentioning a particular player, then said player must be considered a Hall of Famer. So despite the fact Lynch wasn't a model interview subject, and despite the fact that even some of those Hall of Fame voters without axes to grind will reject his candidacy based on the reality that 35 backs have run for more yards and 23 have scored more rushing touchdowns, Marshawn Lynch should be a Hall of Famer because you can't properly tell somebody about this era without mentioning this: 

** CUE PROJECTOR SCREEN, START YOUTUBE VIDEO ** 

That particular touchdown run literally caused an earthquake. The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network station registered a small tremor—or about a magnitude 1 on the Richter scale—at that very moment in the area of Qwest Field (now called CenturyLink Field). 

The word epic is overused, but when a dude does something that causes the earth's crust to release energy resulting in seismic waves, he's done something epic. And while that epitomizing run alone wouldn't be enough to qualify one for the Hall of Fame, it certainly helps push Marshawn over the top. 

Even without that run, he was already within shouting distance of Canton based primarily on what he did as a whole that day in a remarkable playoff upset of the reigning Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints, as well as what he did two years later in the 2012 playoffs (132 yards and a touchdown in a road victory over the Washington Redskins), the next year in the 2013 playoffs (249 yards and three touchdowns in a two-game span en route to the Super Bowl) and the next year in the 2014 playoffs (318 yards in a three-game Super Bowl run). 

Sheer, cumulative statistics are overrated. Because Marshawn played only seven relatively healthy and full seasons as a starter, he'll never come across on paper as a Hall of Famer, especially if you focus on regular-season statistics. A total of 14 Hall of Fame-eligible backs remain locked out of Canton despite having rushed for more career yards than Lynch, and eight eligible backs remain out of the Hall despite scoring more touchdowns than the California product. On both lists is a former MVP in Shaun Alexander. 

But Lynch made his name, his money and his legacy in January and February. 

• When Lynch ran the ball at least seven times (in other words, when he truly got to play), the Seahawks had a 7-2 record in the playoffs, with Lynch going over 100 yards in five of those seven postseason victories. No other back this century has rushed for 100 yards in more than three playoff games. 

Game	Result	Carries	Yards	TD
2014 vs. Packers	Win	25	157	1
2013 vs. Saints	Win	28	140	2
2012 vs. Redskins	Win	20	132	1
2010 vs. Saints	Win	19	131	1
2013 vs. 49ers	Win	22	109	1
2014 vs. Patriots	Loss	24	102	1

• Lynch, Terrell Davis and Thurman Thomas are the only backs in NFL history with four or more 130-yard playoff performances. 

Back	Team	Years	Total
Terrell Davis	Broncos	1997-1998	5
Marshawn Lynch	Seahawks	2010-2014	4
Thurman Thomas	Bills	1990-1995	4
Marcus Allen	Raiders	1983-1990	3

• Lynch, Davis, Thomas, Emmitt Smith, John Riggins, Marcus Allen and Franco Harris are the only players in NFL history with five or more 100-yard playoff performances. Every HOF-eligible player I just listed, except Davis, is in the Hall of Fame. Davis had 1,500 fewer rushing yards, 18 fewer touchdowns and two fewer Pro Bowl nods than Lynch, despite playing in a more offensively balanced era.

Back	Team	Years	Total
Marshawn Lynch	Seahawks	2010-2014	6
Arian Foster	Texans	2011-2012	3
Shaun Alexander	Seahawks	2005-2006	2

• Marshawn also had runs of 20 or more yards seven times in the playoffs—something no other back this century has done on more than five occasions. 

Back	Total
Marshawn Lynch	7
Brian Westbrook	5
Frank Gore	5
Corey Dillon	5
Ryan Grant	5
Tiki Barber	5
Ray Rice	4

So I'll wrap up this eulogy by pleading to the self-proclaimed football gods from media outlets across the country to look past quantity and honor quality by allowing an unorthodox but exceptional Super Bowl champion—one who didn't deliver often but rose to occasions like nobody else in his generation, especially at a far-from-premium position—to avoid spending the next couple of decades in football legacy purgatory. 

Forgive him for his shelf-life-related sins, for his perceived character shortcomings. Clutch moments spawn legends, and no back in this era has come through in clutch times like Marshawn Lynch. 

Brad Gagnon has covered the NFL for Bleacher Report since 2012.

Follow @Brad_Gagnon