Marshawn Lynch

It's widely known/reported that Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch has social anxiety.  He would prefer to do his job and be left alone.  At yesterday's Super Bowl media day he met for the allotted amount of time and replied with "I'm here so I don't get fined." 21 times.  

In the old days (approximately 6 years ago), I would have said "Suck it up buttercup.  There are parts of everyone's job that they don't like doing.  You get paid very well for your work.  Talk when people want you to talk."  Then I learned a few things.  God provided a wonderful teacher to me, his name is Brennan Bartis.

I've learned that somethings are not just non-preferred, they are painful.  

I've learned that people can grow more with boundaries, space and love than with restrictions and hard-and-fast rules. 

I've learned that repeating the same phrase over and over can be comfortable when everything else is uncomfortable. 

I've learned that some things are just not worth it.  

Does this mean that we shouldn't push Brennan or Marshawn or whomever to try new things and grow?  Absolutely not! But above all - DO NO HARM.  I patently disagree with forcing people to do painful things.  That seems like an awesome definition of torture.

There are plenty of Seattle Seahawks the media can talk to.  Richard Sherman seems to relish an audience.  Russell Wilson seems to like to discuss football.  Is it worth the pain to Marshawn Lynch to hear him say "I"m here so I don't get fined." 21 times? ESPN obviously loves it.  It's a news story.  I don't know Marshawn Lynch so I don't know how he feels about it.  I'd guess the time he was at his station was painful and he'd rather play just football.  Why couldn't he write a statement, give it to reporters and move along?

As with most things in life it's about balance.  Give and take.  But guess what, balance doesn't get things done the exact way Person of Authority thinks it should be done.  And it doesn't get ratings or site hits or retweets or whatever.