SAN JOSE, Calif. – For a Super Bowl media day, Monday evening at the San Jose Convention Center was very civilized.
No obstreperous comedians, barely clad telenovela-aspirant weathercasters, nobody dressed in animal costumes.
Those in the public area were restrained and respectful. When the Seahawks were introduced for their one-hour session, some of the 49er fans in the crowd offered a few boos.
All pretty mild, sounding as if it were out of duty and habit rather than festering bile.
What this thing needed, to be honest, was Marshawn Lynch.
What would he do this time? Would he speak? Would he curse? Would he dive off the podium grabbing himself?
The last time the Seahawks met the Patriots in the Super Bowl, in Arizona in 2015, the media day was chaos. But it was exciting, a little out of control, and highly unpredictable.
In that way, it was an appropriate kickoff to a week that ended in chaos.
If Sunday’s match between these teams follows suit, it will be well-played. But perhaps relocated to the local library.
Lynch, of course, famously turned saying nothing into the most profound criticism of this annual tribute to empty rhetoric.
That day 11 years ago, before Lynch went into his full mime act at his podium, he muttered astonishment that so many stupid people had paid to get in the arena to watch so many of the stupid media ask players so many stupid questions.
“Stupid” was not the exact modifier he used, of course, making half the comments unprintable, but not inaccurate, as it was an apt description of what media day had turned into.
Monday, though, was mostly an exercise in rational discussion and serious answers.
On the Seahawks’ side, it is probably a reflection of head coach Mike Macdonald, a studious and thoughtful purveyor of cogent comments.
The Hawks will likely be having to replace at least a coordinator, and there’s talk of an impending ownership change, but there wasn’t much in the way of immediate controversy.
One of the quotes I felt compelled to jot down, for its degree of thoughtless controversy, was by New England quarterback Drake Maye.
Maye was asked about influences in his life.
“My mom, always being my mom,” he said. “The way she treats people and cares for others. She’s the rock of our family and I love her.”
What a jerk, eh?
Of the hundreds of this shrinking gathering of the fourth estate in attendance, it seemed two mysteries were most pressing among their concerns: Has anybody else noticed that this guy named Sam Darnold has suddenly learned how to take a snap? And the rest of you might not remember this, but these teams apparently played in a Super Bowl before, and it had some kind of controversial ending.
Imagine, 11 years ago, when we last convened to preview a Super Bowl meeting between Seattle and New England, if someone had told us we’d be getting together again in 2026.
Oh, yeah another meeting between the aging warriors, coaches Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick. Man, that will be something, the last shootout.
I’m thinking no one would have envisioned that Pete would have recently been fired as the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.
Pete fired? By the Raiders? Las Vegas?
More unlikely would have been to be told that Belichick would be coaching a college team that just finished tied for 13th in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
He’d been denied as a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
And more incredulously, an oddly huge portion of the media in the past year had been devoted to his dating habits.
That would have been enough to cause Marshawn Lynch to howl in amusement and start blabbing questions.