Lynch on Lynch

Thought you might be interested in reading the transcript from John Lunch's Q&A during his press conference Monday when the former Buc announced his retirement.

(On RB Barry Sanders)
“He was the best player that I ever played against. I say that and I think that the quarterback position, they can control the game so when you play against [Joe] Montana and [John] Elway and all that but just in terms of toughness of player I was that eighth guy in the box and that was always a good thing except when you played Barry because that was your guy. He would look you up and find out where you were.
"The longer that I played against him I started to embrace him and enjoy it. Once I started doing that the better it was. He was unbelievable. You had to play team defense against, and you had to trust your buddies. I am in a number of car commercials and that is something that normally I wouldn’t be proud of. One of the proudest moments of my career was, I got a letter from Barry when he went into the Hall Of Fame and he invited me to his party. I didn’t know Barry, I had been to one Pro Bowl with him, he simply wrote in the letter, I always respected the way you played and I would like you to be there and I was able to be there, so that was a big deal.”

(On be eligible to be elected to the Hall-Of-Fame with Warren Sapp)
“If that ever were to happen, it would be incredibly humbling. My thoughts on that, Herm Edwards use to say, ‘every time you go on that field, autograph your performance.’ I tried to do that every time I stepped on the field and if people see me worthy of that someday, I would be extremely humbled. But, I did my job and we will see how that goes. But that class, those are some great friends and I hadn’t heard that. I obviously knew all those guys were retired, but I hadn’t thought about that so that is pretty cool.”

(On going into the media)
“I am trying to shift focus there and call it like I see it. This has been a great opportunity, I had some opportunities right when I left the Patriots, but I really wanted a year at home to just kind of hang out and be at home and kind of just let things come. I’ve been humbled with all the nice offers and what not but this Fox thing turned out perfect. They said that they use to send guys over to Europe but they don’t have that any more, so if we get a game would you be interested. This is a tryout to see if they like me and a tryout for me to see if it something I like. We will see. It’s unbelievable, I watch games in a different light now, I am listening to them. I never have listened to them, but now I am listening to them, seeing what they are saying and how they are saying it. I am looking forward to it. I love the game and I think it gives me an opportunity to stay around the game. I am very excited for it.”

(On when he knew it was time to retire)
“I think you are right, I probably should have listened to my heart because my heart was telling me it was time to be done, but my competitiveness was saying do one more year, get an opportunity to win a championship, give it all you got for one last year. I have to tell you, I try to live in the moment a lot, but I knew the Super Bowl was down here in Tampa and I said, ‘boy if I could ever just do that, what a way to end a career, and I could announce it down there.’ I tried to stick it out. One of the coolest things of my career, New England brought me in there, like they do, they utilize veteran players so well, and they wanted to play me at some linebacker and various ways to use me. After being there a week, coach Belichick said ‘you know the problem with you is your best position is the one you played fifteen years at and been to nine pro bowls at, safety and we don’t need any safeties.’
"So, I kind of knew that things weren’t going to work out. We had some real honest conversations. We went to play the New York Giants, the last preseason game, and Coach Belichick called me in there and told me he was going to play me like the starters. He was going to give me a series. I said, ‘coach, if you would, I know you are trying to prepare for a season, but I would like to play the entire game,’ and he looked at me and said ‘alright, you got it.’
"I am sure if you look at the media reviews, there were 70,000 people, but I am telling you there weren’t more than 30,000 at the start and at the beginning of that fourth quarter there were maybe 10,000 people in the stands and I don’t think I have ever had so much fun playing football.
"We had a goal line stand, I made three tackles and I was out there with rookie free agents and I had more fun playing football that day. I played the first real good football I had played that preseason because I just let it go. I had so much fun and I remember walking off that field thinking if that was the last time it was all right and that was an awesome experience.”

(On if he has any desire to get into coaching)
“There would be a desire to get into coaching; I know I would love it. But, Mike Tomlin sent me a text today saying that if I was thinking about getting into coaching to call him so he could talk me out of it. He said to spend time with my family and I am really looking forward to doing that. Maybe some day. I am coaching little league, the Tigers here and we are having a lot of fun doing that. I am looking forward to coaching some soccer and things like that.”

(On what this day means to him)
“It is awesome. I keep saying it, but I have been so blessed and have so many people that are so special to me and to have them make special efforts to be here, see a lot of old faces that I haven’t seen for a while is just awesome. As I thought about what I wanted to say, of course you get nostalgic, but really I wanted it to be about what this game has meant to me and why it has been so special to me. That is kind of what I feel on this day. I really feel like it is the end of one phase, but again, it is just starting is so many things. I am looking forward to it.”

(On being able to spend time with his family)
“It has been good. I talked to Linda early on and she said do you miss it, and I said of course I miss it, she said you will miss it 10 years from now. I wish I could play forever but you can’t. I always told myself that as long as it was in heart, I would continue. As I said, last season I started having some feelings that maybe it was time and as I said I don’t have any regrets but you always have to listen to your heart and it was time and I’m happy.”

(On what made the group in 2002 the right group)
“I think first of all, that belief that I talked about. It was hard to believe because they had lost for a long time and it was a way of doing things that it just seemed no matter what we did, some things wouldn’t pan out. You had those feeling at times that here we go again. We needed to change that culture and we did.
"We obviously drafted great players with great talent but I think it was much more than that; it was a mind set, a mental toughness that we kind of acquired. Derrick [Brooks] and Ronde [Barber] will get a great chuckle out of this, but I remember some of the old days when we use to play ‘Buc Ball’, and maybe lose 9-6 and Tony Dungy would come in there, in front of the team and say ‘defense we have to play better. I don’t know how do you give nine points to that team. Offense, great job way to control the clock, you gave us a chance to win.’
"Derrick and I, that is how we were raised and I tell you, things happen for a reason and that served me so well for the rest of my career because you expect it. Our job was to have the other team score less points than us and finally I said, you know what, he is right. It was an awesome group of guys and you talk about that core that changed a lot of attitudes around here and I will never forget that.”