Seattle Seahawks WR Ricardo Lockette suffered a severe blow to the head that left him lying motionless in the middle of the field at AT&T Stadium in Dallas last season. That would be the last snap Lockett ever played.
The neck injury he suffered would end his career, but though all the darkness, there was one player by his side no matter the circumstances. Beast Mode.
Marshawn Lynch can be known as a man who’s misunderstood. For a guy steryotped by some as rude, obnoxious, and one who hates talking to people, stories like this validate all the praise that come from those who truly know the man under the character that is ‘Beastmode.’
Ricardo Lockette’s father, Earl Lockette Sr. shared an awesome story to the Seattle Times about how Marshawn was literally there for his son in the wake of the most devastating moment of his life –
We were in there with Ricardo and everything was in a sad mode. A nurse comes up and says, “We don’t know much about football, Mr. Lockette, but there’s a guy outside who says he needs to be in here. He says he plays with Ricardo, and his name is Marshawn Lynch.” I go to the lobby, and Marshawn has his bags. He said, “I knew it was more than what they told me when I saw him go down. I knew it was more severe than that and I could not leave him here.”
What Ricardo didn’t know is that Marshawn peeked in the room and saw he was in there, in the bed, strapped down, couldn’t move, and he cried like a baby. Marshawn did. I won’t tell you everything he did, but he took a couple steps back and soaked those tears up, and he went in there and made my son feel like he could run and jump.
And then on top of that, we didn’t know nothing about nothing. He asked us, “How long are you guys going to be here?” We said, “We don’t know. Until he gets up and walks again, we’re not leaving.” He said, “I’ve got you guys. You don’t have to worry about anything.” When I say he meant that, he really did. He took care of us for a period of time to make sure we didn’t have to worry about getting places, transportation, anything. He did that.
Along with the story from Lockett’s father, other Seahawks players, including punter Jon Ryan, shared their personal stories they’ll never forget about their time with Lynch when he was still their teammate –
“It was after a game where Marshawn had like 30 carries, a ton of touches, and he got beat up. I was in a restaurant with my mother, and him and his uncle and a friend came and sat down. It was a totally quiet restaurant. No one else was in there. My mom was like, ‘Can you introduce me to Marshawn?’ I was like: ‘It’s no problem. He’s beat up, he doesn’t want to talk right now, but he obviously will want to meet you really quickly.’ So I went over and said: ‘Marshawn, this is my mom. She just wanted to meet you.’ And I kind of wanted to leave him alone. But Marshawn sat there and talked to her for a half hour. After that, probably once a month for the next three years, Marshawn asked how my mom was doing.”
