MARSHAWN ANTICIPATES A SUSPENSION

In the past, it’s been unclear whether Bills running back Marshawn Lynch “gets it.” At least for now, he does. Because he realizes that, in the wake of his recent guilty plea to misdemeanor weapons charges, he’s facing a suspension. “I honestly see a suspension coming,” Lynch said Wednesday. “But that comes with the consequences.” Lynch pointed to the fact that he escaped last year’s legal entanglement with a slap on the wrist, both from the law and from the league. Despite being charged with hit and run and pleading guilty to a reduced charge, Commissioner Roger Goodell did not punish Lynch in any way. “He said he wouldn’t tolerate it,” Lynch said of his recent meeting with Goodell. “The first time was like a slap on the wrist, but this time he got to that ‘but.’ This time, I feel it really will stick.” And Goodell seemed to have an impact on Lynch. “I’m pretty sure you’ve all seen the Commissioner in action before,” Lynch said, “so I wouldn’t say like a principal, more like a Commissioner coming down on a player. The message that he gave to me came through. I can still feel some of the words running through my body right now as he said them in the meeting.” But even at a time when Lynch would have been wise to demonstrate contrition, he came off at one point as a tad strident. “They say that about athletes all of the time, that we’re under a microscope and that everything we do will be magnified. So that magnifying I feel is on my back, and that target is getting bigger with the two situations that I had. It will be like I’m a target and I need to know pretty much that there will be some people looking forward to me messing up again. I’m going to just let them know they shouldn’t hold their breath.” We hope he’s right. But we’ll believe it if/when, five years from now, we realize that Lynch hasn’t gotten in any further trouble.