Seattle Seahawks stud superstar running back Marshawn Lynch is brining his “Beast Mode” persona from the pigskin gridiron to the first-person shooter battlefield as a character Call of Duty: Black Ops III.

An article in ESPN the Magazine has the full scoop on Lynch’s day spent getting his face scanned and performing motion capture work at Activision’s studio. Details about his character and how large of a role he plays in the game are not clear at this time, but the ESPN article describes him acting out a scene in a Singapore tavern, apparently as a villain, where he chats a bit with some mercenaries before shooting the place up in an ensuing firefight.

Lynch, already a big Call of Duty fan, had this to say about his video game cameo:

“You’re shooting up everything but always fighting for a bigger picture. The whole game is Beast Mode.”

Obviously Lynch is far more comfortable playing make-believe soldier than participating in ultra-violent fisticuffs in Mortal Kombat X.

In other, non-Beast-Mode-related news, Activision has confirmed that Call of Duty: Black Ops III is now also in development for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360–but still not for Nintendo Wii U. While Treyarch is handling the new-gen versions, Beenox and Mercenary Technology have been tasked with keeping the last-gen fires burning. Naturally, the PS3 and 360 versions will have certain features dialed back, such as support for only two players in campaign co-op instead of four players on PC and modern consoles.

Source: ESPN.com

It’s easy to Monday morning quarterback football games and second guess coaching decisions from the sofa, but fair or not Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll brought hell onto himself by choosing to have Russell Wilson throw a slant from the 1-yard line to go for the likely game-winning touchdown against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX instead of just handing the damn ball to Marshawn Lynch. Had the pass not been intercepted, no one would care, but it was, and with a dude nicknamed Beast Mode standing in the backfield it’s easy to look back and say they should have just run the ball a couple times–even though there was little time left and only one timeout remaining, so a pass in that situation really wasn’t a bad idea. Throwing a slant was ill advised; a bootleg pass/run option would have made more sense given Wilson’s skillset.

(I’d also remind folks criticizing the play call to look back at the Steelers vs. Colts playoff game from years back, when in a similar situation the Steelers appeared ready to ice the game by giving the ball to Jerome “The Bus” Bettis for a presumably easy goal line TD charge. He wound up fumbling the ball–and he was a player that was a short yardage beast and rarely ever fumbled–and the game was only saved by Big Ben making a miraculous shoestring tackle on the Colts defender who had picked up the ball and was running for a return TD the other way. Sometimes shit just happens, is all I’m saying.)

Anyway, EA Sports is getting in on the snarky fun by releasing an alternate ending video which uses Madden NFL 15 to show how the Super Bowl might have concluded had the ball been put in Beast Mode’s hands. Sorry to rub salt in the wound, Seahawks fans, but this is going to hurt!

Beast Mode vs. Gronk

In a Big Game Showdown ahead of Super Bowl XLIX as part of the latest episode of Conan O’Brien’s Clueless Gamer sketch, Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch, a.k.a. “Beast Mode,” and New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, a.k.a. “Gronk,” engaged in a fight to the death playing Mortal Kombat X as a way to predict who will win the big game on Sunday.

You will see a lot of blood, guts, crotch grabbing (both in and out of the game), and stunned looks of horror at the extreme level of violence. And in a shocking change of events, Lynch not only speaks, he actually gets paid $50 to teach Conan his infamous TD celebration rather than getting fined. Beast Mode and Gronk even get sidetracked for a moment and break into a surprising chat about Mario Kart characters and power-ups.

Oh, and someone kinda-sorta wins the showdown. You’ll have to watch the video to find out who.

Tonight, during the final round of the Madden NFL 15 cover vote on ESPN.com, Seattle Seahawks star cornerback Richard Sherman was elected cover athlete for this season’s football video game from EA Sports, topping Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton by a 56% to 44% margin. Throughout the voting, Sherman also won popularity contests against Alshon Jeffrey, Jimmy Graham, and Colin Kaepernick.

Richard Sherman is considered by many analysts to be the premiere cover cornerback in the NFL, so it’s only fitting that he landed the cover athlete gig. It’s also an appropriate choice since EA Tiburon’s main focus for this season is improving upon the Madden defensive game plan with a more intuitive tackling system, smarter coverage logic, new pass rush moves, and new camera angle options promising to add greater immersion and excitement to playing on the defensive side of the ball.

Another all-pro defensive player, reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Luke Kuechly, joins this evening’s festivities by appearing front and center in the first official Madden NFL 15 gameplay trailer. OK, so the trailer really only shows maybe 15 seconds of actual game footage, but hey, that’s better than nothing leading up to E3 where we’ll no doubt get a more in-depth look at the game.

Madden NFL 15 launches August 26th on lead platforms PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Last-gen versions for PS3 and Xbox 360 are in development as well.