John Lynch was drafted into the NFL in 1993 and made his name as one of the best safeties in football.
During his 15-year career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Denver Broncos, Lynch won a Super Bowl and was a nine-time Pro Bowler.
Who was the hardest hitter in the NFL that you watched?
I’ll start: before he was a GM, John Lynch used to eat receivers for lunch on Sundays for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers pic.twitter.com/k8pcjtYAWh
— Zeke’s Spoon (@SpoonOfZeke) January 18, 2024
After retiring, he became a broadcaster before diving back into football as the general manager of the San Francisco 49ers in 2017.
However, Lynch’s NFL career almost never happened.
While in college playing football and baseball, Lynch planned to leave the gridiron behind when he was drafted to play pro baseball.
Thankfully, legendary coach Bill Walsh intervened and convinced Lynch to stick with football.
It turned out to be a life-altering decision.
Lynch took Walsh’s advice and became a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame because of it.
This is the story of John Lynch.
Hard Worker from the Start
John Terrence Lynch Jr. was born on September 25, 1971, in Hinsdale, Illinois.
He was still a young boy when the family relocated to Southern California and Lynch decided he wanted to fill his life with sports.
Lynch’s father, who had played in the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers, took John and some friends to a San Diego Chargers game when John was 10.
The heat that day was fierce, but John Lynch stayed in his seat, mesmerized by the pro game.
“And there’s John,” the father said. “He was a towhead as a kid. He was in the bright sun. Burned to the crisp. But he never left his seat because he was watching every play. He was a great, great student of the game, and he loved it. He just had every expectation that he was going to play in the NFL or the major leagues.”
Although he was raised in an affluent family, Lynch was not afraid of hard work.
“From the time John was about 18 months old, you could just tell,” said John Sr. “He was just big and strong. He was better in almost everything he did than anyone else.”
By the time he was eight, Lynch was already lifting weights and doing whatever it took to become a world-class athlete.
He played youth baseball and his father was his coach who was sometimes ejected during games.
“I’m still chagrined. What was I thinking? But at the time it was damn important to us,” said Lynch Sr.
Three-Sport Star
Lynch also played Pop Warner football as a quarterback who rarely gave ground to opponents.
However, the most important piece of advice John Jr. got was while lying on his back after getting the wind knocked out of him during a game.
While gasping for air, Lynch looked up and saw his dad standing over him.
“My dad said, ‘You know, guys, I think he just needs some space,’” Lynch said. “So everybody backs up and he said, ‘Johnny,’ — he called me Johnny back then — ‘if you ever lay on the field again for anything other than your neck, it’s going to hurt a lot worse when you get home.’”
From then on, Lynch was on the field or gridiron for each snap or pitch.
Somehow, he also found time to play basketball and gave no quarter to opponents on the court either.
As a three-sport star for Torrey Pines High School in San Diego, Lynch was the Falcons’ quarterback, pitcher, and point guard.
Congratulations to Torrey Pines High School alum John Lynch on being inducted in to the NFL hall of fame this weekend. pic.twitter.com/dudmwzNUU7
— San Diego Sports Association (@SDSportsAssn) August 10, 2021
During his junior year at quarterback, Lynch passed for over 1,600 yards and rushed for 500.
Then, in the first game of his senior year, Lynch broke his ankle, ending his final prep season.
Thankfully, he did well enough as a junior that numerous colleges still offered scholarship opportunities.
At one point, Lynch made his way to Washington State and verbally committed to Coach Dennis Erickson, though he was scheduled to visit Stanford University next.
When he called home to share the news, the elder Lynch was not pleased.
John Sr. took a flight to Pullman, Washington, and showed up at Erickson’s home unannounced.
“My dad walks in and asks coach Erickson and me to come into a room for a moment,” Lynch said, laughing. “I mean, it’s not his house. I’m like, ‘Dad what are you doing here?’”
Lynch’s father told Erickson that his son would not commit until John visited Stanford.
That would prove to be a wise move as Erickson soon left WSU to become the head coach for the Miami Hurricanes.
Lynch Becomes a Cardinal
Lynch and his father returned home to California and John Jr. reluctantly took his recruiting trip to Stanford.
“I wanted to go to a place that had a winning football program, and Stanford wasn’t that at the time,” Lynch said in 2020.
Before Lynch arrived to play quarterback for the Cardinal, the program had rarely won.
The highlights for the school were in 1977 and 1978 when Bill Walsh was in charge before leaving to start a dynasty in San Francisco.
In 1986, Jack Elway, father to former Stanford quarterback John Elway, was the head coach and took the team to a Gator Bowl appearance.
Dennis Green came aboard in 1989 and recruited Lynch to become the next great Stanford signal-caller.
John Lynch, QB, Stanford. https://t.co/mT3wKLbFgi
— Joshua Owen (@ImJoshuaOwen) August 15, 2021
The Cardinal went 3-8 in his first year while Lynch saw limited time at quarterback, passing for 45 yards and an interception.
In 1990, Lynch believed he was going to become the starter, then found out he would back up Jason Palumbis.
“I was devastated,” Lynch said. “I thought about transferring … about giving up on football. I wanted to be on the field.”
Relegated once again to spot duty, Lynch had 184 passing yards and two picks as the Cardinal went 5-6.
Switch to Safety
Not wanting to quit the program just yet, Lynch approached Coach Green about playing safety.
Green wanted Lynch to remain at quarterback, but the junior was adamant about playing in the secondary.
In addition to quarterback, he also saw snaps as a linebacker in high school and Lynch believed he could play safety at the college level.
Throwback Thursday The College Years: John Lynch, Stanford https://t.co/nqUjycZmnK pic.twitter.com/nlIGccAJTt
— allthings18 (@ALLTHINGS18) December 19, 2019
Sure enough, just before the 1991 season began, Lynch was named the starter at free safety.
Then, only two games later, he was benched again.
Devastated, Lynch nearly quit the program again but stayed through the end of the season.
Stanford went 8-4 and lost in the Aloha Bowl to Georgia Tech, 18-17.
The Cardinal’s first winning season since 1986 led to Green jumping ship and becoming the Minnesota Vikings head coach.
What happened next would change Lynch’s life forever.
Walsh Convinces Lynch to Stay
While floundering on the football field, Lynch continued playing baseball for Stanford and attracted the attention of Major League Baseball (MLB) scouts.
John Lynch
Stanford, Pitcher 1990-1992 pic.twitter.com/SLwjDIzFUj— Random College Athletes (@RandomAthletess) September 13, 2021
In the 1992 MLB Draft, Lynch was selected as a right-handed pitcher in the second round by the expansion Florida Marlins.
He gained national attention when, as a member of the Erie Sailors of the New York-Pennsylvania League, Lynch tossed the first pitch in Marlins history.
For the rest of the summer, he went 0-3 as a starter with a 2.15 ERA and walked 17 batters.
Lynch believed that his future was in pro baseball when fate intervened.
Bill Walsh was hired to replace Green and the mastermind behind the West Coast Offense returned as the Cardinal head coach before the 1992 season.
Lynch was summoned to Walsh’s offense and the coach implored the rising senior to stick around.
“Listen, I understand you have a heck of an opportunity with the Marlins,” Walsh said. “But I think you could be a Pro Bowl safety.”
At first, Lynch didn’t believe the coach, but then Walsh played him a tape of some of his tackles from the 1991 season.
After being drafted by the Marlins in 1992, Bill Walsh convinced John Lynch to stick with football by showing him clips of Ronnie Lott.
"He said 'I understand the great opportunity you have in baseball, but I believe that you can be an All-Pro safety in the NFL." pic.twitter.com/4jEpJTixwh
— KNBR (@KNBR) February 7, 2021
He then showed Lynch clips of NFL safety Ronnie Lott, whom Walsh coached with the 49ers.
Walsh was dead serious when he told Lynch that he had the talent to become the next Lott.
“By the end of that meeting, I called my dad and said we’ve got to call the Marlins,” Lynch said.
Lynch Delivers
Lynch was convinced to return for his senior season and began playing lights-out football.
It helped that Lott himself attended Cardinal practices while catching up with his former coach.
“I’ll never forget looking over and, on a Mercedes, there was Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott sitting on the hood watching our practice,” Lynch said.
As if that wasn’t cool enough, one day Lott asked to speak with Lynch.
“He talked to me about the concept of ‘hitting through people.’ He talked about [how] even in the NFL, 99 percent of the guys ‘hit to people.’ The great ones hit through people,” Lynch said. “I never lost sight of that. I was so fortunate because right when I went to that position, here’s somebody like that, teaching me that. I was really, really lucky there.”
Lynch got into the groove early as Stanford’s starting safety and began using Lott’s technique to lay the wood on opponents.
The Cardinal lost the first game of the season to Texas A&M then won three straight.
That set up a showdown against sixth-ranked Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana on October 6.
Lynch Upends “The Bus”
The game did not begin well for Stanford or Lynch.
Notre Dame took a 16-0 lead early in the contest and Lynch sustained a concussion that put him on the sideline.
Just minutes later, Lynch heard a familiar voice from the stands calling his name.
It was his father, who gave his son an earful for not returning to the field.
“It was something like, ‘Get your helmet and get back in the you-know-what game,’” recalled Lynch years later.
At halftime, Walsh chewed out his team and the cobwebs in Lynch’s brain went away.
When the Cardinal returned for the second half, they turned into a world-beater.
October 3, 1992: #18 Stanford stuns Notre Dame with a 4th quarter pick in the endzone from John Lynch. Stanford's #2 ranked defense would outmuscle Holtz most talented ND squad. pic.twitter.com/sReXSVyT1g
— College Sports Prof (@cfbsportsprof) September 28, 2022
On the very first play of the third quarter, Irish running back Jerome “The Bus” Bettis, a 250-pound running back, took a handoff and ran in Lynch’s direction.
In a flash, Lynch hammered into The Bus and caused Bettis to fumble.
In the “l’m getting old department,” this John Lynch tribute contains clips from the 1992 game at Notre Dame, which, in October, will be half my life ago. 😟 https://t.co/NIyjPIByMV
— Greg Crawford (@GregCrawford) August 8, 2021
The Cardinal recovered the ball and never looked back.
“I don’t know if that ever happened to him before,” Lynch said. “With a big back like Bettis, everyone goes low. I think I kind of surprised him.”
With momentum on their side, Stanford started scoring points and Lynch dared any Irish player to come his way.
“I made every tackle … I started feeling like I was in a zone,” Lynch said. “We were down 16-0. I think that’s the best football game I ever played.”
By the end of the day, Stanford had screamed back and shut out the Irish in the second half, winning convincingly, 33-16.
“Until you do it on a big stage, you don’t really know how you’re going to react in those situations,” Lynch said. “After that game, I really felt I could play in the NFL.”
Lynch Ends His College Career
Lynch and his teammates believed they could hang with anyone after upsetting the Irish in their own building.
“I really felt that at the end of that year, we could’ve played with anyone in the country,” Lynch said. “That Notre Dame game really was the start for us.”
One week later, the Cardinal beat 19th-ranked UCLA before losing two of their next three.
Stanford then closed out the season with four consecutive wins including a 24-3 blowout victory over 23rd-ranked Penn State in the Blockbuster Bowl.
Zcruit provides @RivalsCamp video for 4⃣7⃣ Division 1 Football Programs
This NFL 4⃣7⃣ (wearing 17 in college) is the recent recipient of a gold jacket
Check out John Lynch back in his Stanford days. Not bad for a converted QB
🏈🧠🤓 pic.twitter.com/gihKCbN2xW
— Zcruit (@ZcruitFootball) August 12, 2021
During his senior year, Lynch tallied 76 tackles and four interceptions, including one pick-six, and he was named a second-team All-American.
While waiting to see if he would be selected in the 1993 NFL Draft, Lynch played a final season of baseball with the Marlins and went 1-0 with a 3.0 ERA while giving up one home run and walking 12.
He then put away his baseball cleats for good.
Third Round Pick
Walsh’s advice to stay in football paid off when Lynch was selected with the 82nd overall pick in the 1993 draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
1993 #Topps #230 JOHN LYNCH RC
Value: $.60
Lynch was so overlooked he couldn't even get his own rookie card back in the day. After a HOF career & building a Super Bowl team, tonight he runs the #NFLDraft2020 for the #49ers.#Footballcards #collect #NFLDraft #BooTheCommish pic.twitter.com/z3JuJwwhdT— Topps Football Cards (@ToppsGallery) April 24, 2020
Tampa Bay was one of the worst franchises in the NFL, but Lynch would be playing for head coach Sam Wyche who had coached with Walsh previously.
Instead, Lynch barely got any playing time in his first two seasons, netting four starts and 28 total tackles in 1993 and 1994 combined.
At the same time, the Bucs floundered, going 5-11 and 6-10 respectively.
Lynch later compared his early years with Stanford and Tampa Bay as being relatively the same experience.
“It wasn’t like I showed up as a freshman and tore it up … I went to the worst franchise in football and struggled to get on the field,” Lynch said.
Before his third season in 1995, Lynch wondered if he had made a mistake by not sticking with baseball.
“It took a lot of hard work,” Lynch said. “It took belief in myself when I felt like a lot of people didn’t. It also took some encouragement from the people I really cared about and respected, the Bill Walshes of the world, the Ronnie Lotts — he had seen me play college ball and saw me in preseason where I got garbage time and at the end of a game — and he’d call and say, ‘Hang in there. You’ve got what it takes.'”
Finally, Lynch got more playing time in ‘95, starting six times and picking up 37 tackles and three interceptions.
After the Bucs went 7-9 that year, Wyche was fired and replaced by Tony Dungy.
In Dungy’s first season on the job in 1996, Tampa Bay won six games while Lynch started 14 times and had 103 tackles, two forced fumbles, and three picks.
It may not have looked like it, but Lynch, Dungy, and Tampa Bay were about to take off.
Playoff Team
For anyone who happened to notice, Tampa Bay was building a good football team.
Slowly but surely, the franchise added personnel such as running backs Mike Alstott and Warrick Dunn and defenders like Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks, Hardy Nickerson, Ronde Barber, and Lynch.
Between 1997 and 2001, the team advanced to the postseason four times and went as far as the NFC Championship game in 1999 before losing to the St. Louis Rams, 11-6.
Meanwhile, Lynch turned into one of the best safeties in football.
"His play changed the dynamics of the safety position."
John Lynch impacted the game in a way never seen before. pic.twitter.com/KtNsg8Nj30
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) February 1, 2019
He went to his first Pro Bowl in ‘97, and by 2001, Lynch had been to the Pro Bowl four times and was also named an All-Pro three times.
In the 1999 season alone, Lynch racked up a career-best 117 tackles to go along with 0.5 sacks, nine passes defended, and two interceptions.
“…[the] sound of a John Lynch hit ‘was like a sledgehammer hitting a piece of wood,’” said the voice of the NFL Network’s A Football Life story about the safety.
Lynch followed that up with six picks, two sacks, and 173 total tackles in 2000 and 2001.
Tampa Bay Wins Super Bowl XXXVII
Before the 2002 season began, Tampa Bay parted ways with Dungy.
The belief by ownership was that the organization wouldn’t get to a championship with Dungy leading the way.
That led the Bucs to spring Jon Gruden from the Oakland Raiders and “Chucky” didn’t disappoint.
Brad Johnson had signed with the team the season before and receivers Keyshawn Johnson, Keenan McCardell, and Joe Jurevicius partnered with Alstott to make a formidable unit.
Lynch and his defensive mates had the NFL’s top-ranked unit and the result was a 12-4 record (at the time it was the most wins in franchise history).
After accumulating 64 tackles, nine passes defended, and three picks, Lynch went to his fifth Pro Bowl and was named an All-Pro for the fourth time.
The Bucs beat San Francisco easily in the divisional round before dumping Philadelphia, 27-10, in the NFC title game.
For the first time in team history, Tampa Bay headed to the Super Bowl to face Gruden’s former team, the Raiders.
John Lynch. Three-time Conference Championship attendee. Super Bowl XXXVII winner. pic.twitter.com/xI7NIKepOc
— Dylan A. Farinash (@Wreck_It_Red196) April 4, 2022
While studying film before the big day, Gruden noticed that Oakland coach Bill Callahan hadn’t changed the playbook or audibles since taking over for Gruden that season.
Callahan’s resistance to change greatly benefitted Tampa Bay.
NFL Films had put a microphone on Lynch before the game started, and at one point, the national audience heard him yell “Sluggo seam!” before the Raiders ran the actual play.
During Super Bowl XXXVII, the Bucs defense intercepted Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon five times (a Super Bowl record), and three picks were returned for touchdowns.
Lynch was rarely tested and ended his day with one tackle and a pass broken up.
The result was a 48-21 victory.
Lynch Becomes a Bronco
Lynch returned to Tampa Bay in 2003 and had 72 tackles and two interceptions but the Bucs won only seven games.
In the spring of 2004, Tampa Bay cut Lynch despite his offer to take a pay cut.
At the same time, the Denver Broncos were looking to add a veteran to their secondary.
Then-Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan and his family knew Lynch and his family well, often running into each other during vacations.
We are John Lynch days away from the Broncos showdown with the Seahawks in Week 1. Is Lynch the best No. 47 in Broncos history? pic.twitter.com/JUEvC0i0um
— Denver Sports (@DenverSportsCom) July 27, 2022
When Shanahan found out Lynch was available, he and team owner Pat Bowlen pounced.
“In Denver, it was just a tremendous fit,” Lynch said in 2021. “I think I had a connection with Mike. … I had great admiration for the way that the Broncos were run as an organization. Those things travel. Their reputation, that they were going to give you a chance every year, that’s all you can ask for in this league. I liked where the team was at when I got there. Those were four great years.”
During his first year with the Broncos, Lynch had 66 tackles, one interception, and a career-high 10 passes broken up.
His stats included a Week 4 victory over Tampa Bay where Lynch returned to his old stomping grounds and had seven tackles including two for a loss.
“Last night, to be honest, I didn’t sleep a wink,” Lynch said after the game. “I don’t know if I was that nervous for the Super Bowl.”
Lynch Calls It Quits
In 2005, Denver went 13-3 to advance to the postseason for the second year in a row.
During the divisional round, Lynch and his Broncos teammates stopped Tom Brady and the Patriots, 27-13.
Near the end of the game, Lynch intercepted Brady to close out the afternoon.
“I love the way he plays,” teammate Champ Bailey said about Lynch. “You know that No. 47 is always going to be ready to play. When he lines up, you feel confident in what he can do.”
The Broncos’ season ended a week later with a 34-17 loss to Jerome Bettis and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Lynch played two more years in the Mile High City, though the Broncos missed the postseason both years.
RT to help us wish #BroncosROF S John Lynch a happy birthday! pic.twitter.com/FEOOBUUzZa
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) September 25, 2020
In what would be his final game as a pro, Lynch made nine tackles in a 22-19 overtime victory against the Minnesota Vikings.
After getting released by Denver, Lynch spent time with New England in their 2008 training camp but was released in the final cuts.
He then retired after 15 years.
During his career, Lynch had 1,059 total tackles, 28 tackles for a loss, 13 sacks, 16 forced fumbles, 68 passes broken up, and 26 interceptions for 204 return yards.
He was a nine-time Pro Bowler (including all four of his years in Denver), a Super Bowl champion, a four-time All-Pro, and was the recipient of the Bart Starr Trophy in 2007 for his character and leadership on the field and in the community.
John Lynch is heading to Canton! Congrats to the Torrey Pines High School Alum 🏈 #NFLHallofFame pic.twitter.com/dy6JEzt45u
— Julian Del Gaudio (@JulianDelGaudio) February 7, 2021
Both the Broncos and the Buccaneers later placed Lynch in their respective Rings of Honor, and in 2021, he was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“I’m a team guy and this is an individual honor, but the reality of this honor is that there are so many people who are responsible,” said Lynch after learning of his enshrinement.
Lynch Becomes a Football Executive
Not long after calling it quits as a player, Lynch became a broadcaster with Fox Sports.
Then, in 2017, he was hired as the general manager of the 49ers.
On this day in 2017, #49ers hire John Lynch as new general manager. He had no previous front office experience. #Random49ers #FTTB pic.twitter.com/Lt6p4F1PDq
— #Random49ers (@Random49ers) January 29, 2022
Lynch’s first order of business was hiring Kyle Shanahan, the son of Lynch’s former Broncos coach, Mike Shanahan.
In the years since Lynch has assembled a championship-caliber team that has played in two Super Bowls (both losses against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs).
When he’s not hanging out with football players, Lynch helps run the John Lynch Foundation, an organization that helps provide scholarships to high school student-athletes in the Tampa Bay and Denver metro areas.
Lynch and his wife, Linda, have four children, including son Jake, who played linebacker for Stanford between 2018 and 2021.
References
https://www.49ers.com/team/front-office-roster/john-lynch
https://vault.si.com/vault/2006/01/23/john-lynch
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=lynch-006joh
https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/john-lynch-1.html
https://gostanford.com/news/2021/2/8/football-launching-a-legend.aspx
https://www.denverbroncos.com/news/five-of-the-most-memorable-games-from-john-lynch-s-broncos-career
http://www.johnlynchfoundation.org/
https://www.buccaneers.com/team/ring-of-honor/john-lynch
https://www.buccaneers.com/news/john-lynch-to-announce-retirement-on-monday-2174295
https://www.buccaneers.com/news/bucs-john-lynch-enshrined-2021-pro-football-hall-of-fame
https://www.profootballhof.com/players/john-lynch/
https://www.profootballnetwork.com/who-is-john-lynch-49ers-general-manager-nfl-2024/
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