When Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch sprinted off the sideline to join a scuffle that started after Raiders offensive linemen Donald Penn and Kelechi Osemele took offense to Chiefs cornerback Marcus Peters hit Derek Carr late, the immediate thought was that Lynch was also upset about the hit.
Lynch wound up being ejected for grabbing an official during the scuffle, but his intent may not have been to get at Peters. Lynch and Peters are both from Oakland and Lynch was a mentor to Peters, including letting Peters live with him while Peters was at the University of Washington and Lynch was playing for the Seahawks. After the game, Penn said that relationship was what led Lynch to storm the field.
“I saw Marshawn come out there; that’s his cousin,” Penn said, via ESPN.com. “Chris Long did that thing to his brother a couple years ago. Marshawn wasn’t doing anything. He was just trying to protect his cousin, get his cousin to the sideline. They’re real close, they’re more like brothers than cousins, they’re real close. He’s going to learn. Marshawn’s smart, he’s going to learn from that moving forward.”
Peters seemed to agree about Lynch’s intent, saying, via the San Jose Mercury News, that “family comes first” after the game and all appeared to be quite well between the two players when they met up on a BART train after the game.
Lynch didn’t share any of his thoughts after the game and history says he’s unlikely to do it at any point in the future either.