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Former KC Chiefs linebacker Jim Lynch, a member of the team’s Hall of Honor, dies at 76

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Jim Lynch, a Pro Bowl linebacker who played all 11 NFL seasons with the Chiefs and was a starter on the Super Bowl IV championship team, has died. He was 76.

Lynch was part one of greatest linebacking corps in NFL history alongside Pro Football Hall of Famers Willie Lanier and Bobby Bell. Lynch joined them in the Chiefs Hall of Honor.

A starter in 142 straight games until his retirement after the 1977 season, Lynch spent most of his career as a right outside linebacker. He recorded 18 sacks, 17 interceptions and 14 forced fumbles and had four tackles in the Super Bowl victory over the Minnesota Vikings.

“While I was a middle linebacker at Notre Dame, I moved to right outside linebacker to accommodate Willie, who played in the middle. Bobby played the outside ’backer on the left,” Lynch said in a 2015 interview with his hometown newspaper, The Lima (Ohio) News. “I feel so blessed to have played almost my entire career with two of the greatest ever to play the position.”

In 1967, the Chiefs made Lynch a second-round draft pick. He had been an All-America selection at Notre Dame and as a senior won the Maxwell Award as the nation’s top college player. Lynch was a captain for the Fighting Irish’s 1966 national championship team.

He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1992.