Sports at Lunch, John Lynch and the NFL
- July 11, 2008
- By Jake Fisher, San Diego Hall of Champions Intern
After 15 years in the NFL, safety John Lynch is missing one thing from his resume. It isn’t a Pro Bowl selection -- he has nine of them -- and it isn’t a Super Bowl ring -- he earned one of those when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers crushed the Oakland Raiders Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII in his hometown at Qualcomm Stadium.
The accomplishment that has eluded Lynch is a poster in the San Diego International Airport corridors next to those of other San Diego legends.
"When people ask me why I’m playing so long, [I say] I’m trying to get myself on that board there [at the airport],” Lynch joked. “Sixteen years -- I’ll keep going until you get me a picture there."
Although the ferocious hitter was only kidding with his audience when he spoke at Sports at Lunch on July 11 at the Hall of Champions, the statement does touch on the pride that Lynch has in being an athlete from San Diego.
Lynch, who played for Tampa Bay before signing with the Denver Broncos in 2004, is a graduate of Torrey Pines High. Although he has played his college and professional careers away from his hometown, Lynch can’t help but feel a bond with other athletes from San Diego.
After the Broncos defeated New England in the playoffs of the 2005 seaon, Lynch remembers going out of his way to find Patriots offensive guard Stephen Neal, a San Diego High alumnus that was a two-time NCAA heavyweight wrestling champion at Cal State-Bakersfield and the 1999 World Championships freestyle gold medalist. Lynch told Neal how impressed he was with him in wrestling career and to make it in the NFL without having played college football.
Lynch shared another story of the bond among San Diego athletes from a recent fund-raiser auction for the John Lynch Foundation. During a slow moment in the auction, Lynch said Junior Seau spontaneously added a package of a "boys night out" with Lynch, Seau and David Wells that energized bidding for the night. Seau, a 12-time Pro Bowlwer, is from Oceanside High and Wells, who threw a perfect game for the New York Yankees, is from Point Loma High.
“We were talking about just how fortunate we are to have a place like this that celebrates a rich sports history,” Lynch said.
Lynch said he started to dream about becoming a professional football player when he was 8-years-old. He was a quarterback at Torrey Pines that grew up going to Chargers games, hating the Raiders, and following other players in the NFL from his hometown.
One of those players, Marcus Allen, Pro Football Hall-of-Fame running back from Lincoln High, spoke to a younger Lynch at the one of the Hall of Champions' Salute to the Champions dinners.
“I remember going to the Hall of Champions and seeing Marcus Allen, and it put it in perspective,” Lynch said. “I got to talk to him and meet him, and he had that same dream as a kid. I said to myself, ‘I think I can do this.’ "
Sure enough Lynch did it. The safety was drafted in the third round out of Stanford and spent 10 years in the league before winning a Super Bowl ring.
“How special is this: you get to come back to your hometown and play in your first Super Bowl,” Lynch said.
In his NFL tenure, Lynch has had a large influence on the cities of San Diego, Tampa Bay, and Denver. In 2007, he won the Bart Starr Award for his character and leadership on the field and in the community.
“That’s been one of the blessings over the last 15 years: the opportunity to do great things in the community,” Lynch said.
This season Lynch will lead a young Broncos team that went 7-9 last year. Though there is no reason to expect he will retire after this season, Lynch will have quite the going away party if he decides to hang up his cleats. Denver’s last game of the 2008 regular season is against the Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium.
Now wouldn’t that be a perfect ending?
