By plotting his NFL comeback for a Raiders team that’s already given up on the city, Marshawn Lynch’s homecoming has the potential to be very awkward
It’s been barely more than a year since Marshawn Lynch hung out his shingle as an Oakland clothier. This was during Super Bowl week in nearby San Francisco and the establishment of Lynch’s Beast Mode Apparel in Oakland’s downtown was a holiday of sorts. The city’s mayor, Libby Schaaf, declared the afternoon “Beast Mode Day”, a huge crowd filled the street outside the store and the running back himself cut a ribbon with a giant pair of scissors.
It was a message that Lynch, who was born and raised in Oakland, was coming home after a successful eight-year football career. And not only was he going to stay in Oakland he was going to invest in Oakland too. For a city long cast aside by the Bay Area boom that was suddenly facing the creep of gentrification, Lynch’s store was a sign the city could find progress without losing its soul.
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