Marshawn Lynch is being fined $75,000 for refusing to talk to reporters after last season’s NFC Championship Game, and he's expected to appear at a hearing set for this Thursday, a league source said on Tuesday.
Although the NFL fined the Seattle Seahawks’ selectively reticent running back shortly after the game last season, news of the whopping penalty did not reach the media until the league notified Lynch this week of the hearing
, Fox News reported.
This is not the first fine that Lynch, 29, has faced stemming from the NFC Championship game against the Green Bay Packers. The league issued a $20,000 penalty after the NFL player made an obscene gesture in which he grabbed his crotch after scoring a
touchdown in the game’s fourth quarter, according to ABC News.
In Jan. 2015, Lynch lost his appeal against a different $100,000 fine for refusing to talk to the media on
two separate occasions, according to the New York Daily News. The first occurred after a game in the 2014 season, and the second incident happened during the previous season, although that fine was initially suspended in order to give Lynch a chance to show his cooperation in the future. Lynch has yet to fully prove himself in this area.
Lynch infamously greeted reporters at the Super Bowl XLIX Media Day, saying, “I’m just here so I won’t get fined,” according to Fox News. His stubborn silence provided much fodder for discussion during that Super Bowl against the New England Patriots. But the running back’s mere presence at such events is not enough to appease the media when he still refuses to speak to reporters.
Lynch’s continued silence remains a mystery because it does not appear to be the result of an aversion to public speaking. Justin Forsett, the Baltimore Ravens’ running back who played alongside Lynch for three years, revealed on Tuesday during a conference call that Lynch spoke at Forsett’s wedding and danced with his mother, according to the New York Daily News.