No matter how much money or fame a professional athlete makes, it still doesn’t allow them to escape the wrath of their mothers.

Case in point, Marshawn Lynch’s momma is growing tired of her son’s recent behavior according to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle.

“Somebody said his mom must have loosened the leash,” she said in an interview. “If I have to grab the leash back, I’ll do it. Whether you’re 22 or 52, I’ll do it.”

She said Marshawn Lynch, 22, has had trouble adjusting to his new life, the one with the $10 million in guaranteed money from a six-year, $18.9 million contract he signed after being the 12th pick of the 2007 NFL draft.

“It’s been a big culture change for him,” she said. “It’s a shock. It hasn’t really sunk in to Marshawn – the stardom and everything that goes with it. He doesn’t like the media attention. I told him at Cal, ‘You’re a role model now.’ ”

Another close friend, who didn’t want to be identified, said, “He’s a good person, but he’s hanging around with the wrong people. He needs to grow up.”

Marshawn seems like a good kid, but if the close friend is right and he’s hanging out with the wrong people, that’s not good.

When the dog-fighting story became public early last year, reports surfaced that Michael Vick was hanging out with the wrong people. Not that Lynch and Vick are the same person or that Marshawn is fighting dogs in his spare time, but friends can often have an influence on your behavior. And I’m sure it’s hard for these athletes to make millions of dollars and try to convince their childhood friends that they’re still the same person but in the case of Lynch, he needs to forget about impressing his crew and start cleaning up his act.

As Vick proved, all of the money and fame can be taken away in a heartbeat if you start getting mixed up in the wrong things off the gridiron.

Marshawn Lynch escaped felony charges stemming from his early February arrest in California for a concealed firearm. Lynch does face three misdemeanor charges, however.

“I’m not pleased that Marshawn was charged… but if he was going to be charged I’m pleased it’s a misdemeanor… I haven’t seen a police report or charging documents, but I’m certainly pleased Marshawn wasn’t charged with a felony.”

The National Football League says it’s still waiting for all the facts of the case, and that they will be evaluated “under the NFL’s policies.”

Lynch could face League discipline for the incident. It’s not clear at this point if the NFL will consider him a repeat offender, given the hit and run incident we was involved in last spring in Buffalo.

Regardless of whether or not he escaped felony charges, there’s a good chance Lynch will be suspended by Roger Goodell considering this is his second brush in with the law. I doubt it would be anything major (i.e. four games), but there’s a real possibility that Lynch could be suspended for one or two games given Goodell’s track record for handling players who got into trouble off the field.

According to News 4 Buffalo, Bills’ running back Marshawn Lynch was arrested in California last week on felony charges of possession of a concealed firearm.

Lynch was released on a $35,000 bond. The case now moves to the District Attorney.

This afternoon, the Buffalo Bills issued the following statement through VP of Communications Scott Berchtold:

“We can confirm that Marshawn was arrested in California and has retained an attorney. We are in the process of trying to gather the facts and will not offer a comment while that process is ongoing.”
It is the second brush with the law for Lynch in the last year. He was involved in a hit and run incident in downtown Buffalo in May 2008. He pled guilty to failing to use sufficient care to avoid hitting a pedestrian and was fined $100 dollars.

Lynch was not suspended by the NFL for that incident, but could face suspension this time for both the charge and repeat offender status.

There are two main problems here. One, this is Lynch’s second major off field incident in his career, the first being when he struck a woman with his SUV and then left her there to fend for herself. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will surely hand down a fine and suspension and the Bills could be without their starting running back for part of the season next year.

The second issue is what would have come from this situation had the police not stopped and arrested Lynch. What was the next move with the gun? Was he just carrying it for protection? Probably, but what if Lynch planned to use it? I can’t believe after all Plaxico Burress has gone through with his gun charge, that Lynch would be so stupid.