John Lynch was reportedly offered a contract of $15 million annually to leave his post as 49ers general manager and return to the broadcast booth.
He said last week that he was not sure what he was going to do until he spoke to the team following the season-ending loss to the Los Angeles Rams — coming just one game shy of the Super Bowl.
“I think the moment for me was after we lost the NFC Championship Game,” Lynch said at the Dwight Clark Legacy Series event in Walnut Creek.
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“Kyle (Shanahan) asked me to address the team, and that’s when the clarity really came to me because I didn’t know (what was going to do). I wasn’t going to address it (the job offer) until after the season.”
The 49ers squandered a 17-7 lead entering the fourth quarter and lost 20-17 to the eventual Super Bowl champions.
“I looked at myself and said, ‘How do I sit up here and address these guys and talk about having the fortitude to fight through the pain of losing a game like this and then turn around and bolt on them?’ I couldn’t do it," Lynch said. "I knew right then what I was going to do. I’m happy to be a part of the Niners.”
Lynch has three years remaining on a contract extension he signed in 2020 after the 49ers lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV.
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Lynch said he turned down Amazon’s lucrative offer because he wants to add a Super Bowl ring as a team executive to the one he achieved as a player with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“I know it’s because I have unfinished business,” Lynch said. “I came here to achieve something, and that was to add at least one trophy to that trophy case that sits there in the lobby of 4949 (Marie P. DeBartolo Way), and we’ve haven’t done it, yet.”
Lynch said Shanahan and 49ers CEO Jed York encouraged him to listen to what Amazon had to offer.
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After playing 15 seasons in the NFL and spending eight seasons in the broadcast booth with Fox, Lynch said he has the luxury of not making decisions based solely on money.
And Amazon was certainly offering a lot of money -- reportedly in the neighborhood of three times his salary with the 49ers.
“It’s silly. It’s stupid. It really is,” Lynch said. “When Amazon came and started talking to me, I said, ‘You want to pay me what? Are you serious? Are you sure?’”