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Super Bowl XLIX

The father missing from Marshawn Lynch's life

Josh Peter
USA TODAY Sports
Marshawn Lynch, bottom, with his father, Maurice Sapp, in an undated photo.

OAKLAND — Marshawn Lynch is playing himself in a movie about his life, titled "Family First the Marshawn Lynch Story,'' and a list of roles to featured in the film has a noticeable omission.

There is no father.

Lynch's dad, Maurice Sapp, is serving a 24-year sentence for burglary and been convicted six times, twice on felonies — grand theft and burglary — according to records reviewed by USA TODAY Sports. He is absent from the movie that's in post production, just as he was absent from much of Lynch's life.

But Sapp's sisters suggested the only way to understand Lynch, the Seattle Seahawks star running back whose refusal to speak with the news media persists as Super Bowl XLIX approaches, is to know about his relationship with Lynch's father, their brother.

"When I see Marshawn, I see my brother,'' Bernice Feaster told USA TODAY Sports. "My brother's been in and out of jail, but he's not a bad person. And he loves his kids.''

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She said Lynch and Sapp last spoke by phone a few months ago. This week Sapp called USA TODAY Sports from Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler, Miss., used by California because of its overcrowded prisons. He declined to comment and referred questions to Feaster, who said she speaks frequently to her 53-year-old brother.

"He wants a better relationship with Marshawn, but he doesn't want Marshawn to think he's reaching out to him just because he's a famous football player,'' Feaster said. "That's a sticky situation.''

The situation, according another of Lynch's aunts, Sarah Bridges, has been strained since the separation of Sapp and Lynch's mother, Delisa Lynch, in the early 1990s. They said their brother had begun to steal from Lynch's mother to support his drug habit that led to criminal behavior.

Delisa Lynch declined to comment.

Over the years, he was arrested on the charges including unlawful transportation, distribution and importation of marijuana; possession of narcotic paraphernalia; grand theft and burglary.

Feaster said although her brother was well liked and talented, he was notoriously unreliable — especially when he'd made plans with Lynch. She said she thinks that contributed to Lynch's distrust of people.

"I think that does have a part in it because Marshawn would be sitting there and he'd be anxious waiting on his dad,'' Feaster said. "Sometimes his daddy would show up, and sometimes he wouldn't.

"I think it affected him. Kids playing football, their daddys there watching them, coaching them, talking to them after the game, telling them what they could've done better or what they did well. And Marshawn didn't have that. He had his Papa (Lynch's grandfather), but it's different."

When he was out of prison, Sapp watched some of Lynch's high school football games from outside the fence at Oakland Technical High School stadium, according to the sisters, who said Sapp wanted to avoid conflict with Lynch's mother. The tension between them interfered with Sapp's attempts to reconnect with Lynch and his younger siblings, according to Sapp's sisters.

Delton Edwards, Lynch's coach in high school, said Lynch grew so angry about the situation with his father that he eventually dropped Sapp from Marshawn Sapp-Lynch. Edwards said Lynch tapped into that emotion when he was on the field, developing a running style that led to the catchphrase "Beast Mode."

"You could see it, the frustration," Edwards said.

Marshawn Lynch changed his name from Sapp when he was younger and estranged from his father, Maurice Sapp.

Mike Robinson, with whom Lynch lived for his last 2 1/2 years of high school, is a retired parole agent who worked with Lynch's father but stopped after a month because he thought it was a conflict of interest to mentor Lynch at the same time. But he also said he got to know Sapp. "I think his drug addiction, he loved even more than himself," Robinson said.

Bridges said Sapp played an integral role in the children's lives when they were young — and that was one reason she was livid when she learned about the movie about Lynch's life.

"I think they should know about this side of the family,'' Bridges said, adding that they spent time with Lynch and his siblings even when Sapp wasn't around. "We never missed a birthday of his, we never missed a Christmas of his. That's just really important for people to know. Marshawn has a strong support system.''

A year ago, Bridges said, she was livid about something else — Lynch changing his name Sapp as a senior in high school. Bridges said she realized he could not have done it on his own because at the time he was a minor. But she said the issue gnawed at her last year, as Lynch and his teammates were ascending to Super Bowl champs.

Bridges said she texted Lynch a photo of Odessa Sapp, Lynch's paternal grandmother, and baby photos of Marshawn and his cousins.

"You are a Sapp first, before anything,'' she texted.

"Then he texted me back,'' Bridges said, "and he was like, 'You know what, I know what my name is.' And he sent me a picture of his back, and it had a tattoo and it had Sapp on it.

"It was all colored in and it was real pretty and I was like, 'Oh, wow.' I had no idea."

In October 2008, when Lynch was playing for the Buffalo Bills in his second NFL season, Lynch and Sapp attended the funeral of Odessa Sapp.

Father and son shared a long embrace.

"Everybody cried,'' Feaster said, "because they hugged, and they felt that hug for so long and so tight. It was so personal and it was just so heartwarming. Just thinking about it, I tear up.''

Later, Bridges said, she talked to her brother about his talk with Lynch that day. Sapp told her that Lynch had said everything was OK.

"I asked him what that meant to him,'' Bridges said. "And he said, 'I might be wrong but I take that as he's forgiven me.' ''

Less than three months after the funeral, the sisters said, Sapp was back in prison. Father and son have not seen each other since.

But the two men have talked. A few months ago, Feaster said, she helped facilitate a call between them.

Separately, she found out, father and son were in agreement.

"They both said it was an awkward situation,'' she said.

Peter also reported from Phoenix.

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