Marshawn Lynch, the former star NFL running back and Super Bowl champion, hinted at a possible candidate for mayor of Oakland on the podcast he co-hosts with his longtime agent, Doug Hendrickson, and California Governor Gavin Newsom.
“It could be a possibility,” Lynch recently told a confidante.
Both Newsom and Hendrickson encouraged Lynch to enter the “Beast Mode” race.
Lynch, the golf cart-turning California Golden Bear alum who headlined ESPN’s College GameDay’s first campus visit last weekend, spoke about the potential opening as Oaklanders consider a recall of scandal-plagued Mayor Sheng Thao. The city has struggled with crime and is dealing with two recalls, an FBI raid on Thao’s home and an intervention by state law enforcement and prosecutorial resources directed by Newsom. Oakland has also lost all its major professional sports teams.
Lynch said he was encouraged to be on the sidelines of GameDay, and joked about the Chris Rock-directed film “Head of State,” which starred the late comedian Bernie Mac. “Remember when Bernie Mac walked through and beat everyone up?” Lynch asked. “That’s how I would get through that… scaring the hell out of everyone, like, ‘Get your shit together.’”
Lynch urged Newsom not to openly discuss his potential mayoral bid. “Leave that shit alone, Batman,” said Lynch, the nickname he uses for Newsom. But the governor ignored him.
Newsom said on the podcast that private polling he has reviewed — “I am aware of information that has not become public,” he revealed — shows that Oaklanders want a mayor who is intimately familiar with how government works and operates. Lynch doesn’t exactly fit that picture.
Newsom said he was surprised by those numbers and previously assumed residents would be more interested in an outsider disrupting the status quo.
But the governor said Lynch is popular in town, with 43 percent having a favorable opinion of Lynch, compared to just 7 percent who view the Skittles pitchman unfavorably.
“That’s off the charts, brother,” Newsom said. “Seven percent unfavorable? That has never happened in my life.” He added, joking about himself, “Seventy percent unfavorable!”
Newsom said that when pollsters read Lynch’s biography among respondents, his favorability rose to 61 percent, while his unfavorability rose slightly to 23 percent.
Newom did not say who conducted the poll, although he suggested he was still waiting for the full report and working on a summary of the investigation. Newsom is working closely with California’s top pollster, David Binder, a top strategist in Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. Binder did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Hendrickson, Lynch’s agent, also did not immediately return a voice message.
Several locally known Democrats have expressed interest in running for mayor of Oakland, including former Major League Baseball All-Star Bip Roberts. Newsom said the survey includes a large number of well-known figures from the East Bay, claiming Lynch compares favorably to all of them. That includes some “people that people would even know nationally … some former members of Congress,” Newsom said.
Lynch had no particular intention of running away. But he certainly didn’t shoot it either.
“We don’t want to go too fast yet, as I’ve been told,” Lynch said. “I need a good internal team, you know, and I want to make sure that I take this offline with my internal team and make sure that this is something that we need to do. Real wants to do.”
But Hendrickson sounded more serious: No one knows Oakland better than Lynch. They briefly discussed Thao’s predicament, with Newsom saying he’s not a fan of recalls (he has personal experience, of course). Hendrickson said Thao is “pretty much gone.”
Lynch said he is confident Newsom’s release of the poll will likely activate Oaklanders around his potential run. They joked about introducing Lynch’s candidacy as a return of the prodigal son, with Lynch’s plane landing on a city golf course.
“He’s not asking for anything,” Newsom said, joking that Lynch would arrive and hand out Skittles while offering up a possible campaign slogan. “He offers something.”
