By Mohammed Ramzanali

Retirement is a loaded word. It can mean spending time with loved ones, pursuing unique passions or conquering fears. It can mean traveling the world or staying in your humble abode, taking up various hobbies such as gardening, or touching up your writing. Retirement at any stage is difficult. To end your career after so many years of refining and perfecting the skills it takes to excel in your field is unfathomable.   

Sunday February 7, at 9:46 pm, when all eyes were fixed on the Super Bowl, Marshawn Lynch, one of the greatest running backs of the last decade, announced his early retirement from football via Twitter. He tweeted a photo of a pair of cleats strung up on a wire with the peace sign emoji. Gaining 246,000 retweets, 200,000 favorites and many replies, he ended his career in a way that suited him best; with few words. His flawless footwork and finesse style of running set the precedent of running the football in the NFL. Orchestrating the traditional style of play, run first pass second, and leading by example will forever be engraved as the way to play for any player in the coming years.

“He’s not carrying the football, he’s carrying his team. That’s who he is. That’s what he does,” said Tom Cable upon Lynch’s retirement and it couldn’t be any more true. In the six seasons he played with the Seattle Seahawks, five of them they made the playoffs, two consecutive seasons they went to the Super Bowl and one season they hoisted the Lombardi Trophy. Lynch had a very simplistic, yet fierce and often times polarizing way of going about his career. He hardly ever spoke to the media and when he did, he did it so he wouldn’t get fined just like during Super Bowl media day in January 2015. He established a level of toughness and domination. Lynch adopted the nickname “Beast Mode” after his “beast-quake” run against the New Orleans Saints in the 2011 playoffs. Since then, he has lived up to the name by breaking numerous tackles, making defenders miss and most of all, displaying ground breaking  runs.

Marshawn Lynch’s retirement was a silent perfection. An accurate representation of him. Going out on his own terms, no press release or news conference. Just a simple picture because after all, a picture does speak a thousand words. The question arises as to why he would retire so early. Lynch was 29 years old and had just completed his ninth NFL season. Even though his track record thus far was amazing, he was just digging below the surface of what he is really capable of. Now that may be a stretch but with the way he plays and the team he plays for, a team that loves him, one would think that Lynch would do anything to keep playing with them. Also considering the fact that they have been in Super Bowl contention each of the last five seasons including 2014 and 2015 when they actually reached the Super Bowl. It’s amazing to think that after playing so much and for so long he wouldn’t try to elongate his time that he has with this amazing organization and this beautiful game. Marshawn Lynch will be missed. His antics, style of play and his toughness are what new running backs will be judged on. He was a man playing amongst boys and his style of play will hopefully breed a new style of running back and bring back a traditional offense system.