Raiders broadcaster Greg Papa unleashed a Trump-tax-returns-level tease on Thursday, claiming on his weekday radio show that the Raiders “are talking to a certain running back” but that “I’ll have to hold this for tomorrow.”
It didn’t hold.
“He did not even play in the NFL last year,” Papa added. “I’ll leave it there. Chew on that.”
People did more than chew. They acted. ESPN uncovered that the unnamed running back was/is Marshawn Lynch. Which now gives the Seahawks a position of strength.
If Lynch had simply unretired with no hint that he has a team in mind, the Seahawks may have simply released him. Instead, they now have reason to try to get something from the Raiders.
The Seahawks also have reason to squeeze the Raiders, since the admission that the team is “talking to” Lynch means that, absence advance permission from the Seahawks, the Raiders are tampering with Lynch. And that fact that Papa is employed by the Raiders would make it very easy for the league to require that he disclose what he knows within the confines of a tampering investigation. (If Papa had no connection to the team, the NFL would have no authority over him.)
So, basically, Papa’s report has created a complication that the Raiders surely didn’t want. And it could keep them from getting the player they apparently need -- without having to give something up for him.