TAMPA, Fla. -- The highlight reel for Buccaneers strong safety John Lynch is a collection of maniacal hits and emotional interceptions.

At one moment, he is run-blitzing a ball carrier for a three-yard loss, and at another, he is blowing up an unsuspecting receiver. The intensity also is evident in his pass defense. In last season's NFC divisional playoff, Lynch not only came up with a critical pick against Washington's Brad Johnson, but he violently spiked the football in front of his offensive teammates, imploring them to erase the Redskins' 13-0 lead.

The Bucs won 14-13.

Yet, Lynch's competitive fire is kindled by kindness. Off the field, Lynch will tell you the foundation for his All-Pro performance is made up of parents, teachers and coaches who have helped him along the way. He's been to two Pro Bowls and starred in playoff games, but replacing departed Hardy Nickerson as the defensive captain means more to Lynch.

"Hardy had always been our captain, and our team nominated me captain," Lynch said. "I think that goes down as the proudest moment in my career because your teammates think that much of you. My definition of leadership is just make the people around you better, and I just try to do that in any way that I can."

	Lynch

The human torpedo has a human touch, and perhaps no one is more familiar with the two sides of Lynch than Buccaneers DB coach Herman Edwards.

Lynch threw the first pitch in the history of the Florida Marlins organization, but the most memorable pitch he ever threw came in his third season with the Bucs.

The Buccaneers safety thought he had made a breakthrough in 1995, when he started six games despite having to deal with a knee injury. But in '96, new head coach Tony Dungy brought a new DB leader to town in Edwards, and Lynch began the season behind Todd Scott on the depth chart. He also began it in a bad mood.

During a drill at practice, Lynch took a football and hurled it 60 feet and six inches. High and tight. Right at Edwards.

"I wasn't exactly throwing at him. He was looking," a reflective Lynch explained, laughing at the moment. "But I've got a pretty strong arm. I was a quarterback and a pitcher. I was ticked off. I was out there in practice, and I probably wasn't handling it the best way. I threw a fastball.

"But he didn't blink. He just looked, caught it and kind of stared me down like, 'Hey, I know what you're doing.' "

Edwards, who guesses the ball was traveling about "100 miles per hour," got the message, but he delivered a more important one in his response.

"I knew then something was wrong," Edwards said. "I called him over, and I just told him one thing: 'John, the cream always rises to the top. You keep plugging, and good things are going to happen for you.' "

Lynch heeded that advice, and the words became a prophecy. Scott suffered a season-ending injury two games into the '96 season, and Lynch has been the starter ever since. In those four seasons, he has evolved into one of the league's best, and the Bucs have grown into one of the league's best defenses.

Those reversals of fortune parallel the developing relationship between Lynch and Edwards. Once Lynch threw a football at Edwards. Now he would throw a party for him.

"We're as close as I've ever been to a coach, and that's for a lot of reasons," Lynch said of Edwards. "Since he's been here, my career has done nothing but elevate, and he's largely responsible for that. He demands a lot out of you and demands a lot out of me. He wants you to strive for perfection each and every day, and it doesn't stop on the field. It's beyond that, and he's a great friend."

	“	I'm fortunate that I play in a great system that features me and play with great players around me. Other than that, you just go out and do your thing, hope it turns out good. Fortunately, it has. ”
		— John Lynch, Bucs strong safety

Lynch's development is all the more surprising when you consider he once pondered returning to baseball. Early on, football wasn't producing the dividends Lynch had hoped for, but he found a way to succeed by emphasizing intelligence and savvy and then letting his natural ability take over.

"I think physically, I have gotten better," said Lynch, who believes he could still play baseball with a little work on his arm strength. "You know what it takes to be a pro, and it's been a lot of hard work, and then confidence. When you're a confident football player and you can trust your instincts and play aggressively, you become a much better football player.

"I'm fortunate that I play in a great system that features me and play with great players around me. Other than that, you just go out and do your thing, hope it turns out good. Fortunately, it has."

How good has it turned out? In September, Lynch inked a five-year, $24-million contract extension. It's difficult to pinpoint exactly how much money Lynch could have made if he let his contract expire at the end of the 2000 season and tested the free-agent waters.

Yet, money was not the prevailing factor for the Stanford grad. A chance to stay in Tampa and continue to be part of the Bucs' defense and the community meant more to Lynch.

"More important was keeping my family here in Tampa, a community we've grown to love, and allowing myself to focus completely on football in a year we have a tremendous opportunity," said Lynch, who has a son Jake and another child on the way with wife Linda. "All those things took precedence over maybe being able to go on the free-agent market. Everyone knows in this league that's where you get paid the most, but to us, there were things that were more important."

One of the important things was his recently formed foundation, which strives to help student athletes succeed much in the same manner people helped Lynch. It's no coincidence that Lynch salutes his high school speech teacher, Bev Grant, in an NFL Teacher of the Year commercial.

Equally important is helping craft the Bucs' defense into a great one. For all that Tampa Bay has accomplished on that side of the ball, Lynch and his teammates refuse to label themselves as great until they win a championship.

"We've been saying all along, let's wait until we win a championship, and I think that's when you become great," Lynch said. "I think we've played some great football, and we have the ability to be one of the great defenses. We have those type of players, those type of coaches, that type of system, everything going for us, but it remains to be seen. It's sure fun playing on this defense and being a part of it."

Ernest Hooper covers the Buccaneers for the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.

Material from Pro Football Weekly.
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