During his introductory press conference on Tuesday, Anthony Lynn accidentally said that he was proud to be the new head coach of the San Diego Chargers. Of course, the team is now the Los Angeles Chargers. The move is still fresh on the minds of coaches, players, and fans, so the mistake is understandable and will probably happen a lot as everyone adjusts to the change.
While addressing the Los Angeles media, Lynn did have an interesting story to share about his introduction into coaching. He credited former San Francisco 49ers head coach Bill Walsh for helping him consider a future in coaching. Lynn played as a reserve running back for the 49ers in 1995 and 1996. His playing career was cut short due to repeated neck stinger injuries and he retired in 2000. While Walsh was no longer the head coach of the 49ers when Lynn was playing for the team, he rejoined the 49ers in 1996 as an administrative aide and would eventually become the vice president and general manager in 1999.
Lynn remembered the moment he was introduced to the idea of coaching. "I remember the day when Bill Walsh came down to the locker room in 1996 and he grabbed me and he said, 'We need to talk,'" Lynn said. "I said, 'Oh s--t, he's about to cut me.' That's what I thought. Bill goes, 'No, I want to take you to lunch. I want to talk to you about something.' He started talking to me about coaching. He said, 'I've identified you as a coach in the National Football League and I want to talk to you about my program for minority coaches.'
"And we began this talk about coaching and I never thought about coaching before. That's where the seed was planted – from Coach Walsh and at the time, being a young man, I didn't know if I should take that as an insult because I thought I was in the prime of my career and this man is already talking to me about coaching or take it as a compliment. But now I take it as a compliment because it really got me thinking about this and from that moment on, every team meeting that I sat in, every coach that I played for, I took notes like a coach. I started preparing like a coach."
Lynn went on to say that other coaches noticed that and when he retired, it was Mike Shanahan that gave him his first opportunity in coaching.
The new Chargers head coach was also a candidate for the 49ers' job. He interviewed with the team on Wednesday, January 4. It was the first head coach interview that the 49ers conducted after firing Chip Kelly following the team's final game of the season.