Sean Lee’s scouting report on Marshawn Lynch: ‘He will f—king punch you right in your face’

In performing arts, there’s a concept called “read”, which is akin to presentation. It is how an on-stage action is taken and understood by the audience. An actor could make a subtle head gesture to indicate his/her confusion and the director may say, “That doesn’t read well” meaning that a person watching the show might not catch that movement and “get” what it is supposed to convey. Instead, maybe the actor has to emphasize it more so that people -- particularly those seated farther back or in the balcony -- can immediately understand it.

By the nature of it, performers have to care how they appear and how others see them and so they place a lot of emphasis (and trust) on direction and from an outside perspective. In the Circus, there’s a saying, “Make the easy stuff look hard and the hard things look easy.” Do it just right and it’s an amazing connection that performers can make with audience members.

Interestingly the TV changes things; it diminishes many things and emphasizes and exaggerates others and it’s hard to figure out exactly what.

On the football field, the TV tends to mostly decrease the impact of the action. Players look smaller and slower than they really are. Perhaps most of all, the dynamism of the game and the intensity of the impacts are filtered. Even the “routine” hits are ferocious by normal human standards.

Watching TV, you can get lulled into thinking “yeah, that didn’t look so bad...” or “I think I could do that...” and start feeling that the game looks somewhat benign.

But get on the sideline or get near the players as they are moving full speed and it’s a different world. Like “they are much bigger than I realized” or “Damn, you can feel those pad pop from here”...

Everyone knows that Marshawn Lynch is like no other and his moniker “BEAST MODE” is not one that came cheap; it was earned. Yet even Lynch was starting to hear criticisms last year and on the field with that struggling offense, his ability did not “read well” for the audience. Lynch did not “read” as powerful nor did he “read” as effective. At times, fans at home started feeling that Lynch looked average or even “washed.”

Contrary to the fans, the players on the field weren’t feeling that at all. In particular, Cowboys’ veteran LB Sean Lee has played against Lynch and was giving scouting info to his teammates. On film, they may not have been able to see everything that Lynch has and Lee wanted to make sure they knew what they were in for.

Here’s what he had to say :

”He’s got speed. He’s faster than you want him to be and he’s heavier than you want him to be... “

then

”He’s got this thing when he cuts, he will f***ing punch you right in your face and put you on your ass.”

and then he closes with

”... when I hit him, it’s everything I got and I’m driving my feet and holding on for dear life.”

Here’s the video from All or Nothing :

Lynch is getting a little bit older and isn’t quite the same player he was 10 years ago. But he is still a beast and he’s still someone that garners attention and respect from his opponents.

In this new offense, Lynch is going to be running as hard as ever and putting defenders on their backs with renewed vengeance. Count on it.