You may remember that I dislike most conspiracy theories.
Why people waste their time coming up with this stuff, I don't know. But now we have one on the Seattle Seahawks' final play call in Super Bowl XLIX.
You know the situation: On second and goal at New England's 1-yard line, the Seahawks passed instead of handing off to Marshawn Lynch. Russell Wilson threw an interception. Game over. Patriots win.
It wasn't good enough to just let this rest with it being a questionable call at best and the most mind-numbing call in sports history at worst. There has to be another layer, like the coach wanting to give the glory to his quarterback rather than the controversial running back. Yeah, that's it!
So here goes: Pete Carroll wanted Wilson to be the hero. Not Lynch. Because ... well, who the heck knows. I guess because he's short with the media? Right. But TheNation.com's Dave Zirin wrote about it. NFL.com quoted an anonymous Seahawks player as saying, "That’s what it looked like," when it was presented to him, although that story acknowledged the quote was probably said out of frustration. But you can go on Twitter or Facebook and find many others who are buying in.
And let's double back to why I hate this kind of stuff: It makes zero sense. None. Not even in some far away universe would this conspiracy theory hold even the tiniest bit of logic.
A couple key points: Carroll doesn't make the call; it's offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell. Even if you're saying Bevell is part of the conspiracy to keep Lynch from scoring, it entirely ignores that he was given the ball on first down and was tackled a yard short of the goal line. The Seahawks didn't mind trying to make him the hero there. The Seahawks have made Lynch a star by giving him the ball. He has roughly 300 carries per season the last four years. Lynch is one of their best players, one of the biggest reasons they won a Super Bowl last year and two straight NFC championships. "Oh, but his media issues in Super Bowl week" ... nobody on the Seahawks cares. I didn't hear one Seahawk all week complain about Lynch. Carroll defended him. He said, basically, he doesn't want Lynch doing anything to hurt the team (like a penalty for grabbing his crotch after a touchdown) but everything else is up to him. There's no reason for anyone in Seattle to dislike him enough to keep him from scoring a game-winning touchdown. It's ridiculous to think otherwise.
"Oh but the NFL didn't want him winning MVP" ... stop it. The league wouldn't have been thrilled, probably, for the idea of Lynch's MVP press conference, but we're to believe that in the 30 seconds the Seahawks had to decide on a second-and-goal play that the NFL called on them to keep Lynch out of the end zone? Please.
it was just a bad call. They wanted to pass on second down to save one timeout for their last two downs. Carroll said they were going to run with Lynch on third and fourth down, and there's no reason not to believe him. Once the Seahawks didn't hurry in a second-down play, they couldn't have run with Lynch three times. There wasn't enough time. I'm not saying I agree with their train of thought, but that's what it was. It was not "Let's make sure Lynch doesn't score so we don't have to give him a bigger contract."
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No. No chance. That isn't real life.
The Seahawks, with a Super Bowl on the line and a half of a minute to figure out how to play the next three downs, weren't in deep contemplation about who they wanted to be the hero. If Lynch scored from the 1, everyone was a hero. Nobody on that side, especially the coaches, cared who actually scored. Did they screw up? Sure. But it wasn't some plot to get Wilson and not Lynch up on the MVP stage.
Please, let's stop this conspiracy theory now, because we're all in danger of losing too many brain cells contemplating something that has zero chance of being true.
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
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