Former NFL star Marshawn Lynch has revealed that he could launch a bid to become the mayor of Oakland.
The 38-year-old, who won Super Bowl XLVIII, spent the majority of his career with the Seattle Seahawks before a brief spell with the Oakland Raiders from 2017 to 2019.
Nicknamed ‘Beast Mode’, Lynch now co-hosts the Politickin’ podcast alongside his agent Doug Hendrickson and California governor Gavin Newsom.
Per Politico, the former running back admitted that he recently told a friend: ‘It might be possibility’.
He added: ‘We don’t want to jump the gun just yet, from what I was told… I have a good internal team.
Super Bowl champion Marshawn Lynch has revealed that he could run for mayor in Oakland
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‘And I want to make sure I take this off-line with my internal team and make sure this is something that we really wanna do.’
Voters will next month decide whether to remove Mayor Sheng Thao from office amid concerns over crime levels and the departure of the Oakland A’s to Las Vegas.
Earlier this year, federal agents raided the home of the Oakland mayor as part of a probe into political corruption.
Thao maintained back in June that she did nothing wrong and has no plans to resign from office.
But several high-profile figures have shown an interest in running for mayor, including Lynch and former MLB All-Star Bip Roberts.
According to Politico, both Newsom and Hendrickson told Lynch to go ‘Beast Mode’ in the race. The former NFL star joked that he would emulate Bernie Mac’s character in the movie ‘Head of State’.
The 38-year-old, who won Super Bowl XLVIII, spent most of his career with the Seahawks
‘Do you remember when Bernie Mac was walking through, when he was slapping the s*** out of everybody?’ Lynch said. ‘That’s how I would be coming through there… slapping the s*** out of everybody like: “Get your s*** together”‘
Newsom claimed to have seen polling data that revealed Lynch was well liked in Oakland. The Super Bowl champion reportedly had 43 percent favorability versus just seven percent unfavorable.
‘That’s off the charts,’ Newsom said. ‘Seven percent unfavorable? That never has happened in my life.’
According to Newsom, Lynch’s favorability rose to 61 percent after voters read up on the former NFL star, while his unfavorability hit 23 percent.
