Peyton Manning got a good workout from Pete Carroll

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Denver quarterback Peyton Manning knows this about Seattle Coach Pete Carroll: The coach is a gracious host.

Several years ago, Manning was in Los Angeles in June and wanted to get a workout in, specifically to throw the football. So he called the USC football office and reached Carroll, then coach of the Trojans.

“I asked if his receivers and quarterbacks were throwing that day, and could I come over and join the throwing session because I was getting ready for training camp,” Manning recalled Wednesday, saying he intended to throw whatever routes the team had been planning to throw.

Carroll, who wasn’t in the office the day of the workout, made sure the red-and-gold carpet was rolled out for Manning, then quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts.

“Coach Carroll had eight receivers, four tight ends, four running backs — all stretched, lathered up and ready to go when I got there,” Manning said. “I said, ‘What routes do you want to run?’ They said, ‘No, Coach Carroll said we are going to throw whatever routes you want to run. This was going to be your workout.’ That’s as good a treatment as you can get for a visitor to a different team.”

Although Manning said his college football allegiance is always to Tennessee, his alma mater, “but on that day, Southern Cal helped me out.”

Mum’s the word

A day after answering questions for 6 minutes and 21 seconds of Seattle’s hour-long media day session, Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch bumped that up slightly, tolerating questions for 6:47 during another session at the team hotel. After that, he climbed over chairs to get away from reporters, as fellow running backs Robert Turbin and Michael Robinson were unintentionally blocking his path.

Of the media’s desire to talk to him, Lynch said: “I appreciate it. But I just don’t get it … I’m just here so I don’t get fined.”

Teammate Doug Baldwin defended Lynch, who was fined $50,000 during the season for refusing to speak to the media.

“He doesn’t like talking to the media, that’s not what he’s about,” Baldwin said. “I think it’s ridiculous that the NFL forces him to do that. They’ve threatened fines; they’ve threatened suspensions that if he didn’t talk to the media they were going to come down with harsh punishment.

“I don’t get it. You get fined for talking too much, you get fined for not talking at all. I don’t think he’s misunderstood. That’s just who he is.”

Shipwreck

No one on the Broncos’ injury report has been diagnosed with seasickness.

Not yet, at least.

Denver has been holding its daily news conferences on a large yacht docked outside the team hotel, and the cramped quarters are no pleasure cruise for players or members of the media. As Wednesday’s session began, the ship started rocking in the choppy waters of the Hudson River.

Manning, for one, wasn’t pleased.

“Is this boat moving?” he asked. “Is this thing moving? God dang!”

Asked if there was something he wasn’t prepared for this week, he said: “I wasn’t prepared for the rocking cruise ship. There’s always a little wrinkle. I guess that’s added. Keeps you on your toes.”

Sage advice

Denver Coach John Fox, whose Carolina Panthers fell to New England in his only other Super Bowl as a head coach, was asked what was the biggest lesson he learned from that experience.

“That you don’t want to lose,” Fox said.

Gray is OK

As of Wednesday evening, the weather.com forecast for the Super Bowl called for 28 degrees, cloudy skies, and a 20% chance of snow.

Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor, for one, isn’t concerned about the weather, no matter what it winds up being.

“When you were a little kid, did it matter?” he said. “When we were little kids, we were playing in the rain, in the snow. It was fun. Why lose it now? If you really have that passion for the game, why complain? So that’s how we feel. It doesn’t matter about the elements. At the end of the day, it’s football.”

That stands to reason. Chancellor does play in Seattle, after all.

sam.farmer@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATimesfarmer