Marshawn Lynch career earnings: Former Seahawks RB reveals how massive media fines impacted NFL salary

It’s no secret that Marshawn Lynch wasn’t a huge fan of media availability during his time in the NFL.

He shared his feelings about it during one of the most infamous press conferences in NFL history.

“I’m just here so I don’t get a fine,” Lynch said repeatedly during this well-documented Super Bowl Media Day interview.

While Lynch may not have been fined during that legendary performance, he has been fined many other times throughout his NFL career.

And in the end, the total value of his fines ended up in the seven-digit range, as he explained in an appearance Brandon Marshall’s I Am Athlete Podcast.

“The fines started piling up, and they were from previous seasons,” Lynch explained. “And now, do you feel me, they’re pumping it up. So it turned into a pretty penny.”

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How much was that “pretty penny” worth? Lynch told Marshall and his cronies that he had been fined $1.2 million during his NFL career.

Marshall assured his viewers that the number wasn’t a joke. The former star receiver revealed he was fined $2.2 million during his playing tenure for a variety of reasons, including skipping contracted media availability.

But how did the players — and Lynch in particular — rack up these kinds of fines? The former running back star explained that it’s often a matter of timing, especially after wins.

Lynch explained that he would go to the dressing room early after wins as his services were not always needed to bleed the clock. Media representatives then arrived 15 to 20 minutes after the end of the game, by which time Lynch was gone.

“So all of them [ask], ‘Where’s Marshawn?’ ‘ Lynch explained before answering. “He is gone. So if I wasn’t there, how can I make myself available?”

A valid question, but one that has an easy answer: don’t leave early.

Even though Lynch was hit by those fines at the time, he still made plenty during his playing career to make up for that loss.

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Career earnings by Marshawn Lynch

Lynch earns just below that $56.8 million during his 12-year playing career, per Spotrac.com. Much of that money came from his seven seasons with the Seahawks, during which he barely earned $38.6 million.

Below is a breakdown of his career earnings by team, from highest to lowest:

team	Years	In total
Seahawks	2010-15, 2019	$38,591,055
bills	2007-09	$11,178,823
robber	2017-18	$7,000,000

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Marshawn Lynch Net Worth

Lynch has an estimated net worth of 35 million dollars, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Much of that comes from his earnings from his NFL career, but another portion comes from endorsement deals he’s signed over the years. According to Forbes in 2015, these were valued at 5 million US dollars per year.

Meanwhile, Lynch had reportedly not spent any of his career earnings from his NFL days as of 2016. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport detailed this in an interview on KJR’s The Ian and Puck Show.

“Marshawn Lynch has a lot of money,” Rapoport said. “He’s never spent a penny of his actual play money.”

That explains why Lynch’s net worth remains so high years after his retirement from the NFL.