This past week has been tough, but I know I’m ready to go on Sunday.  Last week we had a great come-from behind victory against the Packers.  After a poor start, we came back to take the lead thanks to an amazing onsides kick recovery by Chris Matthews and a touchdown in overtime on a perfect spiral pass from Wilson.  I had a pretty good game, too.  I knew that since I was the lead halfback, I’d get the ball a lot, but I wasn’t expecting to run for 157 yards on 25 carries and a touchdown, not to mention a would-have-been touchdown if my golden cleat hadn’t touched down out of bounds on the wheel route.  Now we Seahawks are going to be in the Super Bowl in back-to-back years for the first time since the Patriots did it in 2003 and 2004.

Those Patriots are very different from the Patriots we will be facing in a week, but they still have the same quarterback, Tom Brady, and head coach, Bill Belichick.  News has come out that they may have used deflated footballs in the AFC Conference game against the Colts.  It didn’t seem to affect the outcome though, because the Patriots won 45-7 easily.  I’ve tried to ignore all the media this week because I don’t need anyone getting into my head.  The only football related television I watched was the Pro Bowl, where Team Irvin won 32-28 over Team Carter.  I’m dreading the upcoming media days, which I found out, much to my dismay, I’m required to attend.  If I’m lucky, the reporters will be distracted by “Deflate Gate” and won’t ask me too many questions.  They should know I’m going to ignore them because I’ve skipped media days before.  I’m only going so I don’t get fined $50,000 again like last year.

On the way to media day, a thought entered my mind “respond to every question with ‘I’m here so I don’t get fined’” and I thought that would be a good idea because that really was the only reason I was going.  I didn’t need to try to answer the questions because I could end up looking like a fool, which happened to Belichick when he tried to talk about the air pressure in the footballs.  While I was still in the car, I decided to set the timer on my phone to five minutes, which was the amount of time the NFL required us players to be at the media days, and I put on my Beast Mode hat and mirrored sunglasses, my I’m-not-going-to-let-you-read-my-emotions gear.  I left the car and entered the building.  As I made my way through the crowd up to the podium, a sea of reporters and their cameramen, ready to twist my responses in order to make a story, stared back at me.  I took my seat in front of the Gatorade-sponsored purple backdrop and asked when my time started.  When I heard that it had started, I started my stopwatch and explained exactly what I was going to do.  Reporters still asked me questions in their projecting-without-yelling voices, but my response never varied.  Some people laughed and cheered, as if it was a joke, but I was serious.  The questions still came in, but they were all answered the same way.  Most of the questions were related to football at first, but eventually they started asking ridiculous questions, like “cat videos or dog videos?”, just to get a response out of me.  I answered these questions the same way, no matter how ridiculous.  I may have sounded like a broken record player, but I was only there so I didn’t get fined, I wasn’t there to answer questions.  The timer sounded, and I knew that my time had passed.  I was done with the questions and could focus on the game coming up, at least for the moment.

The next day, I planned to do the same.  I was once again wearing my emotion shields and once again set the timer for five minutes.  I then spent a few seconds to explain to the reporters that I would not answer any questions this time either.  They still bombarded me with questions, asking, “Marshawn, do you think you’ll get fined for your responses at the last media day?” They asked me some football relevant questions too, along with completely unrelated, irrelevant questions.  Clearly they had not heard me all 29 times I had answered, “I’m here so I don’t get fined”, or any of the times today when I responded, “You know why I’m here.”  I was in a game-preparation mode and I could not be shaken out of it by any of the annoying reporters.  I would not show my emotions and I would definitely not say even the slightest thing about our game plan, which is probably why Coach Pete Carroll had stood up for my decision not to speak at the previous media day.  Within a second of the alarm sounding, I got up and proceeded to attempt to make my way through the crowd of reporters, as if I were plowing through defenders on the field.  I had done my time and could now focus on the game itself, rather than on appeasing the league.  I hope that the league finally realizes it’s breaking the First Amendment, which is the freedom of speech, by forcing players to speak, but for now the media days are just something that I have to deal with so I don’t get fined.