Lofa Tatupu: Marshawn Lynch was one of the greatest teammates I’ve ever had

Former USC Trojans and Seattle Seahawks great Lofa Tatupu discusses how great of a teammate Marshawn Lynch was, as well as his new career in the CBD market.

Lofa Tatupu was an incredible football player in the 2000s. He was part of the peak Pete Carroll years in college with the USC Trojans. The second-round pick in the 2005 NFL Draft spent six seasons in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks, making it to three straight Pro Bowls from 2005 to 2007, earning All-Pro honors in 2007 and helping Seattle reach its first Super Bowl in 2005.

Tatupu dealt with a ton of injuries in his football career but met some incredible people along the way. Though they only played in Seattle together for a season, Tatupu spoke very highly of his former Seahawks teammate Marshawn Lynch to FanSided’s Mark Carman on Monday ahead of Super Bowl LIV down in Miami.

“If that was his last moment, he chose to speak about to the young guys what to do,” said Tatupu about Lynch’s possible final press conference after Seattle’s loss to the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Divisional round. “And the mental health, I texted him and just said, ‘I’m grateful that you [did]’…because we have a lot of teammates that are no longer with us.”

“But that just shows you. He’s one of the greatest teammates I ever had. We only played one season together. And he was always just service to his teammates. He’s a standup guy. He’s largely misunderstood by the media. And he gives such great interviews, it’s such a shame it went that way earlier in his career, in terms of the media.”

When talking about his college coach and later NFL coach Carroll and why he was so successful at both levels, Tatupu would offer this, “Well, Pete had success as a coordinator in the NFL and that’s what a lot of people [don’t realize]…I think it really gave him the time to go back and work on him. And he fine-tuned his message and his style of coaching and just executed it…”

After spending 2011 out of football, Tatupu briefly spent time on the 2012 Atlanta Falcons before retiring. He has since founded his own CBD company called ZoneIn CBD. Tatupu said he had several concussions in his playing days with the Seahawks and at USC. He says he takes CBD a few times each day, saying it helps him crush his days now that his playing days are done.

Lofa Tatupu spoke with FanSided on behalf of ZoneIn CBD.