Safety Lynch gets second chance
The former Buccaneer and 13-year veteran is prospering with the Broncos.
DENVER (AP) -- They gave John Lynch a key to the city in Tampa, and then they said good-bye.
The NFL can be a cruel business for players who are up in years, especially when they're coming off a big injury.
Lynch, however, got his second chance in Denver, and he's been as versatile and effective as ever at the safety position, helping the Broncos pull to within a win of the Super Bowl.
"Sure, there's some human nature when you're let go from a team," the 13-year veteran said this week while preparing for Sunday's AFC title game against Pittsburgh. "You want to prove to yourself and you want to prove to everyone that they made a mistake. But that's in the past. I'm just having a whole lot of fun."
To be sure, Tampa Bay's decision not to re-sign Lynch was as painful for the Buccaneers as it was for Lynch. He was more than a fan favorite, he was part of the city. When the Broncos returned to Tampa, Fla., last year for a game, only his fourth in anything other than a Bucs uniform, fans embraced him, wearing their No. 47 jerseys and cheering so heartily for him that he left the field in tears.
Buccaneers' position
But the Buccaneers felt they had to move on. Lynch was coming off a tricky off-season operation to remove bone spurs from his neck. Plus, as an 11-year veteran with five Pro Bowls on his resume at the time, he was commanding the kind of money that Tampa Bay couldn't afford.
"I can't speak for Tampa because people deal with the salary cap all the time," Denver coach Mike Shanahan said. "There are a lot of times you'd love to have a player and he's making too much money, and you have depth at that position. But I'm sure glad we've got John Lynch on our football team."
Last season was filled with high highs and low lows for Lynch. He made the Pro Bowl and was, as usual, considered one of the best at his position. He also got fined twice, the second an imbroglio with the NFL over a vicious hit he put on Dallas Clark of the Colts in the final regular-season game.
Lynch insisted the hit was legal. The NFL sent out a note warning officials to keep an eye on him in the playoff rematch with Indianapolis the next week. The whole thing turned into a soap opera, and after the Broncos lost the game, Lynch felt he'd lost some of his dignity, as well.
"The league celebrates it, then fines you," Lynch said in an interview earlier this season. "That bothers you. This year is better, because it's been all about winning games for me and that's what it should be about."
Lynch is winning plenty this year, and any nascent talk that he might be losing a step has died down.
At his versatile best
Over the last few weeks, he has been at his versatile best, solid in coverage (one interception and two pass breakups last week), but also playing out of a three-point stance more and rushing the passer (three sacks and three forced fumbles in the last two regular-season games).
"I just started doing that on my own," Lynch said of the three-point stance. "Now, it's become a part of our package. I'll blitz off of it, I'll bluff off of it. Sometimes I get to cover receivers, sometimes I'm playing two-deep, sometimes I'm playing center field. Sometimes I'm playing linebacker. I enjoy the challenge."
He is, in many ways, playing the same role Troy Polamalu plays for the Steelers. Polamalu, the versatile safety who lines up everywhere, was named an All-Pro, in this, his third season in the NFL.
If he keeps playing at this level for another decade, he might be the same kind of star in Pittsburgh as Lynch was in Tampa ... and is now in Denver.
"I've always believed that at this stage you should be playing your best football, if your body would allow you to do it," Lynch said. "I worked real hard to keep my body in shape so it will allow me to do the things I'm doing, and I'm enjoying the fruits of that."
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