Lynch and Rice will join 94 other nominees for this year’s Hall of Fame.
Both Rice and Lynch were members of the Buccaneers Super Bowl Championship team and hope to be among the finalists selected for the 2017 Hall of Fame class.
Lynch has been a finalist for Canton over the past couple of year’s but somehow just keeps missing the mark. Lynch will likely make it to the 15 finalists again awaiting final voting, and again this year he will be partnered up, with fellow Buccaneer, Simeon Rice. Rice recorded 69.5 sacks during his six-year stint with the Buccaneers and was selected to three Pro Bowls. He is arguably one of the best pass rusher of his era. Lynch played 11 years with Tampa where he recorded over 1,000 tackles, 13 sacks, 15 forced fumbles, 26 interceptions and earned the title as one of the hardest hitting safeties of his time. Lynch is also one of two players from that era who have been selected to the Pro Bowl nine times and have not been inducted into Canton, yet.
John Lynch and Rice are two of the nine candidates returning to the running from last year and hope to edge out the competition, which is pretty stiff when you have players like LaDainian Thomlison, Jason Taylor, Donovan McNabb, Terrell Owens, Edgerrin James and Steve Atwater, to go up against. Bucs have been getting their fair share of Canton inductees lately, and we hope it will continue again this year.
Simeone Rice was nominated last year but was not among those selected for the semi-finals, this year he hopes it will be different, as it should be. If Rice and Lynch make it to the Canton this year, they will join former Super Bowl teammates, Derrick Brooks and Warren Sapp further strengthening Tampa’s membership in the Hall of Fame.