The Seattle Seahawks were looking to become the first team in a decade to repeat as Super Bowl champions, but they came up just short of victory. In the days since the Super Bowl ended, many around the country have placed the blame for the loss squarely on the shoulders of Pete Carroll.
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As everyone has by now heard, the Seahawks faced second and goal from the one-yard line with less than 30 seconds remaining. Carroll elected to call a pass play instead of handing it off to his star tailback. The pass was intercepted, and the rest was history.
Many on the team also questioned the wisdom of throwing instead of giving it to Marshawn Lynch, with one anonymous player going so far as to suggest that Carroll called the pass so that Wilson - not Lynch - would be the hero of the game.
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Lynch and the Seahawks are scheduled to discuss his contract this week. Lynch's current deal expires after the 2015 season. Some have thought that the team may release Lynch in order to save several million dollars of cap room, whereas other sources have suggested that the team is lining up to give him a big extension.
Nobody seems to discuss Lynch's motives in all of this. Every player wants long-term security, but they also want to be respected. Could Lynch view Carroll's lack of faith in him on the goal line as a slap in the face and eventually reject any extension offers from Seattle?
Rumors swirled earlier in the season that there was a growing rift between Lynch and the team, specifically coach Carroll. If there is actually any truth to the anonymous player's assertion that Carroll did not want Lynch to be the Super Bowl hero, then it would only deepen any divide or reopen old wounds.
Lynch knows that he is the focal point of the offense right now, but if he thinks Seattle is pushing to make the Seahawks Russell Wilson's team, then perhaps that would push him to search for greener pastures elsewhere, especially since the team seemed so willing to move on from him midway through the season. At one point, even Lynch himself said that he did not expect to be with the team in 2015.
If Lynch does rebuff extension offers from the team, then Pete Carroll's decision to pass will be second-guessed not just as one of the most questionable play calls in Super Bowl history, but also as potentially being the decision that destroyed a budding dynasty.
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