Seattle Seahawks legendary running back Marshawn Lynch, whose nickname is Beast Mode, lived up to that nickname–and then some–on the football field. Just take a look at some of his stats below:
*Super Bowl champion (XLVIII)
*First-team All-Pro (2012)
*Second-team All-Pro (2014)
*5× Pro Bowl (2008, 2011–2014)
*2× NFL rushing touchdowns leader (2013, 2014)
*NFL 2010s All-Decade Team
Now, after retiring from the game in 2019, Beast Mode has been on a quest to not only give back but also be transparent about his mental health journey and why it’s so important to all of us, not just athletes.
“Mentally, realistically, it’s something that is always, I mean, it’s always a battle,” admits Lynch in a 2023 interview. “And the thing is, some days is good and then some days it’s not so good. But the thing is, like, I think the way my mind is wired it’s like I don’t take Ls. I learned lessons. So, if anything is in the presence of me with I could feel like it’s never bad, it might not always be good but it’s never bad.”
You May Also Like
“Take care y’all bodies, take care y’all chicken… take care y’all mentals…” As players enter another offseason and we are presented an opportunity to reflect on our personal growth and commitments off the field, I’d like to encourage us all to to invest in our mental health by expanding your identities beyond football. There is a direct link between mental and emotional well-being and identifying with something bigger than a single profession.
NFL players are often seen as the pinnacle of masculinity, and because caring about our own mental well-being and seeking support has not historically been associated with masculinity, too many of us do not prioritize that aspect of our health. It’s an area that if we proactively address while we’re in the NFL, including utilizing the resources available to us, we’ll be much better positioned to handle life after football.
Psychologists have warned against overly identifying with one aspect of ourselves, because if – or, in NFL players’ case, when – that label no longer applies to us, it can feel like we’ve lost our identity completely. Football players are at a high risk for losing this sense of identity after they retire, because for most of our lives, the praise and admiration we’ve received has been because of football. Our careers give us recognition, pride and a sense of purpose. But it can be dangerous if being a “famous” football player is the only source of those things.
You May Also Like
On an episode of Finding Mastery, Marshawn opens up about what it takes to be stronger, mentally, on and off the field.
Be yourself
“Shit, it’s hard enough being myself, so trying to pretend to be somebody else, I know that shit got to be like, shit, even probably 10 times harder… growing up in Oakland, it was like, you feel me, you’re going to get called out. I mean, no matter what you was going to get called out about no matter what you did. And at the end of the day it was either you own up to take ownership in who you was, you know what I mean? Or get called out for being something that you’re not. And I think just over the times and over the years of just growing up in these type of environments, you feel me, it just helped me get even more comfortable in my skin than I already was.”
Fitting in
“I grew up in a real diverse area, so it’s a fine line of, I would say, being yourself and then just being somebody who wants to be accepted by somebody because I mean, you go around a couple different crowds and don’t fit in here, and then you go over there. And I mean, I feel it’s all a process of trying to understand who you are. But I mean, I know it can get real time-consuming and emotionally draining by going out and looking for these individuals that you fit in rather than just a natural connection and it just falling into place, which is what you’ve been saying to me, like more organic or authentic or however you want to look at it. But to me it’s just shit just falls into place.”
Loving yourself
“At a young age, when you’re trying to come of your own and you have so many different opportunities to see so much different shit, it can be kind of confusing. But I mean, one thing that I know that I tell my kids at our foundation, our youth center, and the ones that I come in contact with is all of that is cool, going on social media, liking this and liking that and being inspired by this and being inspired by that, but just make sure that your number one inspiration comes from when you’re able to wake up and look at that motherfucker in the mirror.”
“How did I get to loving myself? I stripped all my clothes off, butt-ass naked, and looked in the mirror. I told that dude I was looking at, ‘I love you. I love this.’ This is me.”
It comes from within
“At the end of the day, I’ll be like, “Shawn, you feel me? How was your day today?” “I had a couple people say some shit that I probably didn’t like, but you know what? Overall, I had a great ass day.” You feel me? Body still works, still able to move around. And I go with that thought, I go with that self love, self-appreciation. And what that cost is that don’t cost nothing from no other person, from no substance, from no outside form of nothing. But besides sitting down and have a conversation with myself.”
Getting rid of your labels
“The number one thing that I learned in my journey. Because I mean, I’ve been called… I’m not going to say called, I’ve been labeled. I’ve been labeled “special ed,, ADD, ADHD,” all them Goddamn names that they got for kids who’ve got energy and don’t learn the Goddamn way that they taught you to learn back in the medieval times to sit down and raise your hand, all that shit. They’d label you as a menace, basically. And once you get labeled like that, it’s hard to shake those labels and they follow you. But I mean, I was labeled my whole… Shit, I left Cal with a 3.2 and was still labeled.”
Asking for help
“I was one of them kids. “No, I’m too proud to ask for help and I’m not going to go ask them for help. They’re already calling me stupid, they already don’t like me, this that and the third,” and then, I was just like, “You know what? Fuck it. I’ll keep failing. You know what? Help. I asked for help one time. It was the best thing for me. I asked for help for the rest of my life. I’m telling you, me, I left Cal with a 3.2 GPA. I’m like, shit you got me fucked up. If I could go and leave Cal with a 3.2 GPA, then I don’t give a fuck who you is. You could do it. Because man, I’m telling you, I’ve been labeled everything. So I mean, ask for help.”
Transitioning from sport
“It’s about keeping that community. Realistically, man, if you’ve got somebody to talk to, somebody that could just sit there and not even respond to you, but maybe just let you talk their ear off about some shit, man, that’ll probably be just a big help. And then, I know a lot of athletes after they leave from the game, it’s just like, woo, where is it coming from next?”
