Words from Lynch help boost Rawls

A couple of weeks ago, Marshawn Lynch stopped by the Seattle Seahawks’ practice facility and had a word with Thomas Rawls.

We’ll never know what that conversation meant to Lynch. We do know what it meant to Rawls.

“It means a lot,” Rawls said. “Marshawn Lynch? I look up to him. I still do. I still communicate with him. I reminisce back when I was younger, just watching him. ‘Man, hopefully one day.’ And that day is now.”

Saturday night, Rawls ran for 161 yards in the Seahawks’ 26-6 wild-card win over the Detroit Lions, breaking Lynch’s team post-season rushing record while rekindling Seattle’s post-season aspirations.

“We love that style so much and his aggressiveness,” Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said of Rawls. “His attitude about running the football is exactly what we want to stand for.”

Which is what Lynch represented in Seattle for six years.

Rawls, in fact, formed an instant connection with the enigmatic Lynch last year when he joined the Seahawks as an undrafted free-agent rookie out of Central Michigan. He also seemed to take over Lynch’s role in the Seahawks’ offence before a broken ankle ended his season in December of 2015.

This year, Rawls suffered through another series of injuries, which limited him to 349 rushing yards in just nine starts.

Then came his breakout performance against the Lions.

“The thing about Marshawn I can say is that we come from similar backgrounds,” Rawls said. “There are certain things we say or do where we understand each other. I think that connection with me and him was really over the top when I first met him. I think that’s when we really got close.”’

— Ed Willes