The Raiders may not be long for the Bay Area, but there's cause for celebration today with the return of prodigal Oakland son Marshawn Lynch. Born and raised in Oakland, Lynch rose to fame as a running back with the Seattle Seahawks, retiring in 2015 before surprise un-retiring to join the Raiders.
To celebrate signing with his hometown team today, TMZ claims, Lynch would host a block party at his namesake Oakland retail store Beast Mode Apparel. Guests would include teammate Derek Carr, actor Michael B. Jordan (Creed, Fruitvale Station), and rapper E-40 (going dumb, getting hyphy), TMZ said.
Others including national sports reporters and KRON 4 appeared to corroborate the news, but a representative at Beast Mode Apparel tells SFist that there's no such block party. This may be somewhat devastating if you were already getting into partying Beast Mode.
Marshawn Lynch plans to officially announce his signing to the city of Oakland at an autograph signing/block party Thursday, per source
— Clarence Hill Jr (@clarencehilljr) April 26, 2017
Beast Mode Apparel is open for business, however, and now's still a good time to invest in some Lynch gear. The Chronicle has it that his two-year deal with the Raiders was agreed upon yesterday: He'll make $3 million in 2017 as his base salary and stands to make $3 million more if he rushes for 1,000 yards or more.
In related news, actor Tom Hanks, an Oakland native and Raiders fan himself, says he's going to boycott the NFL altogether if the Raiders move to Las Vegas. As ABC 7 reports, the actor made comments to the effect that "you can't put them in an air-conditioned dome in the desert, make them play on artificial turf and call them the Raiders."
