Brandon Browner speaks from prison and other former Seahawks on YouTube

Marshawn Lynch on Tyreek Hill's podcast, Brandon Mebane, Kam Chancellor, Michael Bennett, and more: Seaside Joe 1553

The other day, I wrote about YouTube, content creators, and how difficult it is now to stand out in a crowded field, especially if you don’t have a lot of money or credibility. There was a time when experts and professionals appearing in YouTube videos or podcasts and giving interviews was practically unheard of; but now there are so many of them, including the professionals starting their own channels and shows, that oftentimes I won’t even know that something like that exists until I stumble into it.

The YouTube content machine is now so diluted (and so corporatized) that it doesn’t matter if you’re a former MVP, even Cam Newton is finding out how difficult it is to reach a wide audience. I rarely write about former Seahawks—I believe we’ll be best served to focus on the present and future—but given the time of the year and the fact that former Seahawks are often still talking about the current head coach, it seems somewhat relevant.

Originally, this article was going to start with Brandon Mebane appearing on K.J. Wright’s podcast this week (yes, K.J. Wright has started a podcast too), and I would much rather talk about something “light” than “heavy”. But in looking for other former Seattle Seahawks on YouTube, I couldn’t help to not be most interested in the fact that even from prison you can make Internet appearances.

In case you missed it or it slipped your mind, about four and a half years ago, former Seahawks cornerback Brandon Browner was sentenced to eight years at San Quentin State Prison for attempted murder. He is reportedly eligible for parole in November.

I was only going to share recent videos of former Seahawks and this one was posted in April of 2021—so maybe some of you have already seen it—but with only 8,000 views I figured that most of you have not. In this interview with the CROP Organization (Creating Restorative Opportunities and Programs), Browner starts by saying, “Before I made the mistake of coming here, I played professional football,” before talking about his strict upbringing and what led to him being in prison.

Browner enjoyed football because it was a place for him release aggression and anger in a legal way. I share Browner’s interview not to glorify him or his situation—the crimes he’s been accused and convicted of are serious and horrifying—but because it is interesting and unique.

Browner says that the NFL is comprised of “a lot of immature men” and it feels like the Seahawks have taken intentional steps away from those types of players recently. However, when Browner does get out of prison I believe it’s fair to say that Pete Carroll will be one of the first people to offer him help, if he wants it.

Brandon Mebane on K.J. Wright’s show

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Brandon Mebane anywhere and this week he talked to K.J. Wright and Gee Scott about who mentored him during his first season under Mike Holmgren, his first impressions of Pete Carroll, and Seattle’s confidence at halftime of Super Bowl 48. Mebane, Red Bryant, and Max Unger were the only three position players to “survive” Carroll’s housecleaning from 2010-2012.

This clip has almost 4,000 views through two days.

Rare Kam Chancellor appearance

A lot of Super Bowl Seahawks have been showing up in the last year or two, especially it seems after Russell Wilson was traded to the Denver Broncos. But one name who doesn’t like the spotlight at all is Kam Chancellor and that’s probably why he’s only in this :84 second clip from last August in which he talks to “Chad”.

Chad has 216 subscribers. But if he wants to be a professional broadcaster in the future, he’s going about it in the right way. Just needs to practice saying “adversity” a bit more.

Cliff Avril gives Tyler Lockett glimpse of his future

We know that Lockett’s already in the early stages of his long-term future in real estate, but Avril’s “paved” that road too. About 6,000 people have watched this clip of Avril talking to Thach Nguyen about constructing homes.

This clip is filmed in the Bellevue area.

Michael Bennett talks Seahawks “origin stories”

Last month, Michael Bennett posted a short shoutout to the new rookies through the Seahawks channel, but what I REALLY want to clip for Seaside Joe is this quote he recently gave to Michael Bumpus and Stacy Jo Rost on 710:

“We have an origin story where we begin at, we grew up in this place, we moved to our adolescent stage, then collegiate stage, then adulthood.”

Somebody get Michael Bennett a subscription to Seaside Joe so he can read our origin stories!

Now Marshawn Lynch can’t get enough publicity

I would have assumed that Kam and Marshawn had similar philosophies on media, but that’s clearly not the case. Marshawn always knew what he was doing when he refused to give journalists what they wanted and since retiring, it’s not that hard to get him to speak.

Two weeks ago, Marshawn Lynch appeared on Tyreek Hill’s podcast (yes, Tyreek Hill has a podcast) and obviously they talk about the Super Bowl play, his golf cart moment against Washington, the media, being “Beast Mode”, and comparing Tyreek to Tyler Lockett.

This clip has over 120,000 views.

On the Super Bowl play, Marshawn says every time he goes outside someone says to him “you should have gotten the ball” and that when the call came into the huddle that everyone was confused. He says that Pete and Darrell Bevell’s version of events, that it was the best “strategic decision”, is basically not how he sees it.

Speaking again about dilution, it used to be that if Marshawn talked about the Super Bowl play that it became national news… I did not even know this interview existed until today. And what I do is cover the Seahawks. Maybe that’s on me a little bit, but I’m shocked that Marshawn Lynch being interviewed by Tyreek Hill never crossed my Internet path.

Doug Baldwin’s mindset on audibles

I can’t believe this clip has 327,000 views because I’ve never heard of the “Whistle” YouTube channel, which has 3 million subs. Probably because there seems to be some sort of connection here with Amazon and Audible podcasts.

Golden Tate on Russell Wilson’s struggles

For Seahawks fans, Russell Wilson and Golden Tate will always be intertwined because of what I’ll deem…”disputes”. It’s interesting to see that Tate gave his analysis of Wilson’s struggles on The 33rd Team after a Broncos loss to the Chargers last season.

Tate says that didn’t have the same confidence and composure that he had when he was playing with him in Seattle. “He’s so worried about his image.”

One notable former Seahawks player who is not as easy to track is Earl Thomas. Rarely has an NFL star’s career taken such a sharp turn from being a key starter to being unsignable and then as of last year he was in the news for legal issues.

If you have other Seahawks-related videos or podcasts that I’ve missed and could be unaware of, please let me know!