Michael DiRocco, ESPN Staff Writer 8y

Hall of Fame wasn't on John Lynch's mind during slow start to career

John Lynch's goal at the beginning of his career was pretty modest: Just make it to the end of his rookie contract.

For a while, it appeared that might not happen.

After being selected in the third round of the 1993 NFL draft, Lynch was mainly a special teams player in his first two seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He had 28 tackles and just four starts in his first two seasons, and his belief in himself -- one of the biggest assets a defensive back must have -- was pretty low.

"You get to this level and I didn't have that instant success, so you kind of start believing, 'Well, maybe I am just a special teams guy,'" Lynch said.

Lynch and his wife have reminisced about those early years.

"When we first got here we just said, 'If we can just make it three years, if we can just play this first contract out,'" Lynch said. "Boy, [that] would have been a success."

Lynch did make it through those first three years -- and then added 12 more in the process, becoming one of the best safeties to ever play the game. He went on to make nine Pro Bowls for the Bucs and Denver Broncos, which is tied for the second-most at the position behind Hall of Famer Ken Houston, and was named All-Pro three consecutive seasons (1999-2001).

Lynch, 44, has yet to join Houston in the Hall of Fame. He missed the cut for the Class of 2016 on Saturday night in his third year as a finalist.

Lynch believes it's not a coincidence his career started to flourish when head coach Tony Dungy, defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and defensive backs coach Herm Edwards arrived in 1996. They saw Lynch's potential in Kiffin's Tampa 2 defense -- and made sure he saw it, too.

Lynch became a full-time starter in '96 and made his first Pro Bowl the next year.

"I started believing in myself a little bit, but a lot of that was created by Tony and them when they came down [to Tampa]," Lynch said. "I started having the confidence, but Tony and Herm and Monte, they had a great vision for what I could become in that defense. They said, 'This is how we see you. Now we have to go make it happen.'

"And it started to happen and the rest was history."

As Lynch's confidence grew, so did his teammates' confidence in him. Former Bucs running back Mike Alstott, who arrived as a second-round draft pick in 1996, said it amazed him how consistent Lynch was, not only on the field, but in the locker room and meeting room, as well.

"John came to work every day and was a professional at it," Alstott said. "It wasn't just on the field. I think that's why we did what we did in Tampa, because of our locker-room presence, too. He was a huge part of that. He was already four years in the league when I came in and he was unbelievable in mentoring myself and young guys, like a [Ronde] Barber and everybody else. It never stopped for him.

"It was a day-to-day challenge to get everybody on the same page and everybody buying in. He was a huge reason for our success."

Bucs co-chairman Bryan Glazer said Lynch was just as much a part of the Bucs' dominating defenses as Hall of Famers Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks. There's another person who might argue Lynch was even more important because offenses had to know where he was before the snap.

"One of my favorite quotes about John was made by Hall of Famer Barry Sanders," Glazer said. "Barry said, 'John Lynch didn't just play the position, he occupied a spot in your mind and you had to be aware of where he was at all times on the field.' It was perfectly said."

It wasn't because Lynch had a reputation for delivering big hits. It was the fact Lynch always seemed to be in the right place at the right time to eliminate the chances of a big play.

"That's what made him so great," Alstott said. "He was always in position to play the run and play the pass and understood the game very well."

It took a while for Lynch to get to that point and he had to overcome a lot of self-doubt to get there. He cherishes those first few seasons as much as he does the Super Bowl XXXVII title and his pending induction into the Bucs' Ring of Honor.

"You remember the hard times; you remember the good times," Lynch said. "And you remember what it took to get from the hard times to the good times."

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