|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
Lynch-pin Strong safety an important cog in Bucs' defense
Posted: Saturday January 22, 2000 03:27 PM
By Mark Morgan, CNNSI.com TAMPA -- At 6-2, 210 pounds, he's one of the hardest-hitting defensive backs in the NFL and opponents are not the only ones who keep an eye out for what Bucs' strong safety John Lynch calls, “friendly fire.”` Just ask his teammates. “He tends to hit us quite a good deal in the piles,” says defensive tackle Brad Culpepper. “Lynch hits anything that’s squirming,” adds Warren Sapp who also plays defensive tackle. “If you're squirming you better stand still because he’s coming with a furious hit.” Linebacker Derrick Brooks knows all about those flying starts of Lynch’s. “He has a 12, 15 yard head start, I'm just trying to make sure I'm not on the receiving end.” Unfortunately for Sapp, he has been on the receiving end. And it’s not something the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year cares to have repeated a second time. “I got in the way one time and it cost me two broken bones in my hand so I'm going to stay out of his way.” Defensive end Chidi Ahanotu summed it up for everyone by saying, “All of us probably have an injury from Lynch.” “I tell the guys whatever it takes,” Lynch explains. Sorry the guy moved [laughs]. With four-straight 100-tackle seasons to his credit, and a second trip to the Pro Bowl coming in February, Lynch, 29, is barely controlled fury on the field but just as subdued away from battle. Hence this description from teammate Derrick Brooks. “He's kind of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” Brooks says. “He and I usually go at each other a little on the field.” Lynch confides there’s a simple reason for that. “I think because he’s the same way as I am, he said. “He’s very quiet and unassuming off the field. And every time there’s a play that break he's looking at me, ‘Where were you?’ And then I’m looking at him, ‘Where were you?’" Ahanotu offered his observation when he said, “Lynch transforms into a maniac out there.” His intensity was never more apparent than following his third quarter interception against the Redskins last week. Lynch awoke the dormant Bucs' offense with his emotional outburst on the sideline helping spark Tampa Bay to a comeback win. “It was like a bomb went off,” Sapp recalls. “That’s exactly what it was like, a bomb going off for everybody. It was our time to take this game over and his play really swung the momentum.” The Bucs were trailing 13-0 at the time and Lynch says he and his teammates knew somebody had to step up and make a play to help jump-start the team or face final elimination. “We talked about as a defense, ‘Lets just make one play and we can get back in this.’ And I think my emotions just took over from the standpoint of, ‘All right, we made our play, now you guys go do your job’ and sure enough they did.” “We wanted to show him that we were appreciative of him giving us another opportunity to go out and score some points,” said quarterback Shaun King. “And it was getting to a point in the game that if we were going to win we were really going to have to step up and make some plays.” For all his aggression, Lynch has a thinking man's approach to the game, cultivated while playing two seasons at quarterback at Stanford. Before switching to safety, he ran the still popular West Coast offense under then Cardinal head coach Dennis Green. “I understand offensive coordinators, how they try to attack a defense and quarterbacks what they are taught to look at,” Lynch says, “because just like on defense, there are certain key indicators that they look at and I think it helps me knowing their thought process and I think its been a great advantage.” Another advantage Lynch may have is his wife Linda, a former swimmer at Stanford. John discusses the team's game plan with her each week and she in turn leaves him a note prior to the game. These notes have become as valuable to Lynch as his playbook. “I think he reads them and listens to his wife on how to play the next game,” said Culpepper who is Lynch’s roommate on the road. “So then he'll call her up and say, ‘Do you think we should run a lot of cover two? Should I bump him here or look for the crossing route?’” So this is nothing more than just a friendly ritual, right? Not hardly. “There's been times where I've forgotten the note or I've been late for the bus,” confides Lynch. “And, ‘I can’t go without the note Lynn.’ If I have to be late, I have to be late. So since I've been in the league that’s been a constant.” Oh, and one more thing, courtesy of the roommate. “She packs his clothes for him,” Culpepper volunteers. “I think he wouldn’t want anybody to know that. He has no idea what he’s wearing from each week.” Lack of fashion sense will be forgotten, if Lynch is unpacking in Atlanta for the Super Bowl.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
