Shanny Must Break You

Give it up, it's a juice thing I'm steppin for the rep and
wreckin all the rest and, weapon testin on who's stepping…

Safety John Lynch came to the Donks four years ago at nearly the top of his game, helping the team to consecutive playoff appearances his first two years. He instantly became a media and fan darling, hawking Champion windows in cheesy commercials and a myriad of other products along the airwaves.

In the team’s only playoff game versus the Patriots following the 2005 campaign, Lynch played perhaps his finest game, stifling Tom Brady and the Pats all night long.

From there on the field it waned, Lynch lost a step or two or three, and the Broncos missed the playoffs for two straight seasons. Lynch seemed to be in too many highlights of opposing receivers crossing the goal line.

In this past off season, a few head-scratching moves occurred among the franchise and Lynch. First, the team practically begged Lynch to come back for another year. He obliged. Next, the team brought in safety Marlon McCree, a former starter in San Diego. McCree would effectively be penciled in to compete with Lynch at the safety slot. Finally, Lynch skipped the Bronco’s “voluntary” workouts at Dove Valley to complete in a “Rocky in the USSR” type workouts in San Diego.

Label this corner as the final event essentially being the one that punched Lynch’s ticket out of Our Town. Coach Shanahan constantly refers to the “99 percent” off season workouts, almost to the point that it is a dig at Lynch for being the missing piece. We all know that Shanny has become the Ayatollah, with a tightening grip on his authoritae the past few years, and here is his starting safety, a team leader, not around? He forgoes Shanny’s right hand man, Rich Tuten and his scientific Drago workouts, to haul logs and boulders and run hills on the beach?

Camp opens, and Lynch is more a spectator that player. Five days in and Lynch is out like the San Diego breezes that he could be enjoying as a member of the Chargers.

Shows that not even the most well liked, respected, and locker room leader isn’t immune to the Coach’s orange-hued skin and his stern glare.