Marshawn Lynch has joined the ownership group of a new professional arena football team that will call Oakland, California, its home starting next spring.

Lynch told The Mercury News that the idea to help keep football in his native city was born when he was watching his brother, Davonte Sapp-Lynch, play in an Indoor Football League game earlier this year in Arizona.

"I went to go check my brother out and I kind of ran into them after the game," Lynch said of co-owner Roy Choi and team president Scott McKibben. "I had a good-ass time while I was at the game. When they said, 'We're going to bring a team to Oakland,' I didn't really believe that."

Lynch sees the Oakland Panthers of the Indoor Football League as a second chance for him to leave the legacy in Oakland he had intended before the Raiders decided to leave for Las Vegas.

"My whole intention was to come back and play with them until they left," Lynch said. "[Arena football] wasn't something I was looking at -- not even a little bit. But when the opportunity presented itself -- I'm a big dude on believing in timing and [stuff]. This, at the time, really made sense."