Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch spent the off season teaching women in Turkey to play American football

Where did the Seattle Seahawks' mysterious, media-shy star running back, Marshawn Lynch, retreat to after being denied the ball on the goal line of February's Super Bowl — a play that ultimately handed a win to the New England Patriots?

Not a spa, a private island, or a tropical resort. In fact, you probably didn't see this one coming: Lynch was in Turkey with an organization called American Football Without Barriers, teaching women the mechanics of the sport.

The participation of Lynch and several other NFL players in the Turkish football camp doubled the sign-ups for the camp's women's football team, The Wall Street Journal reports. That itself is a noteworthy feat in a nation where women's participation in a sport like American football "is very rare," in the words of one of the coaches, Deniz Somersan.

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"There was no gender barrier. The women really liked football there and they were tough," New Orleans fullback Erik Lorig told The Wall Street Journal of his experience at the camp. "I learned a lot about the Turkish culture and they are a tough people and the women especially pride themselves on it."

Lynch himself was "the stuff of legend" at the camp:

When asked by The Wall Street Journal to comment on the experience, Lynch, to nobody's surprise, declined.