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BY IRA KAUFMAN

He didn’t have a vote, but David Baker admittedly had a preference when Canton’s newest class was selected.

The president of the Pro Football Hall of Fame dreaded the idea of making another phone call to John Lynch. For seven consecutive years, it was my privilege to make the case for Lynch and for seven consecutive years, Tampa Bay’s intimidating safety came up short.

There were no guarantees Lynch would be part of the Hall’s 2021 class of modern-day players, so the suspense was killing Baker when he learned the results following a Zoom meeting in January involving 48 selectors.

Friday is gold jacket day for Bucs icon John Lynch.

“John Lynch is such a gentleman with such enormous class,” Baker told me this week. “And certainly with Super Bowl 55 being in Tampa, this would be a great time for him. After that day when we all met virtually, I opened up the envelope and the first name I was looking for to be quite honest with you, was John Lynch.”

On Sunday evening, the Hall will unveil Lynch’s bust at his induction ceremony. He’ll join Warren Sapp (2013) and Derrick Brooks (2014) on stage in Canton and try to limit his speech to 6-8 minutes.

Good luck with that, No. 47. There’s too many people to thank, too much help he received along the way.

Lynch has selected his son, Jake, to be his presenter and former Bucs secondary coach Herm Edwards as his co-presenter. Lynch will bat cleanup in the enshrinement lineup, speaking just after Peyton Manning and just before Calvin Johnson.

It’s been almost six months since Baker and an NFL Films crew traveled to a San Diego suburb and changed Lynch’s life — forever.

“Seven times before, I had to call and tell him that I hoped I could call him next year with better news, but he wasn’t going to be in the Hall of Fame that year,” Baker said. “I didn’t want to call John one more time.

“I’ve had the privilege of knocking on the door of a lot of guys who had to wait like Jerry Kramer, who waited 45 years. If you remember, I knocked on the door and Jerry said, ‘You are the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in a long time.’ To the best of my knowledge, that’s the only time in my life I’ve ever been called beautiful.”

When the Hall contacted Lynch’s wife, Linda, with the wonderful news, she was instructed to keep it a secret until Baker’s arrival. In the meantime, she made sure her husband would be surrounded by family and friends when the historical knock came down on a Sunday afternoon.

“They had everybody over the house at Rancho Santa Fe to watch the conference championship games,” Baker said. “It’s this huge door and I have a huge knock, so they know it’s me. When John came to the door, he said, ‘What?’ I think for him, he thought someday this is going to happen, but he’d been told no and therefore he didn’t want to expect it too much.

“I remember him saying he’d tried to come to peace with the fact that it may not happen, but this is really great. To have everybody there, it was really, really cool.”

Staying Classy

When you’ve been turned away at Canton’s doorstep so many times, it’s easy to turn bitter and curse the process. Lynch never did, and it helped to have the passionate support of icons like Brooks, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre and Barry Sanders.

Ira Kaufman references Simeon Rice awaiting his Ohio group hug.

Still, Lynch had to sit on the sidelines while contemporaries like Brian Dawkins, Ed Reed, Steve Atwater and Troy Polamalu earned gold jackets at the safety position between 2018 and 2020.

When Baker broke the news to Lynch in person, it was a toss-up which man flashed a bigger smile. Lynch was vindicated and Baker was relieved.

Good luck finding someone with a bad word to say about John Lynch. He’s now one of 36 defensive backs with a Hall of Fame bust and few Canton immortals can match Lynch when it comes to representing the values of the Hall: commitment, integrity, courage, respect and excellence.

Who wouldn’t want John Lynch as a member of their club?

He’ll walk the gauntlet of fellow Hall of Famers Friday night before trying on that gold jacket. Waiting at the end of the line will be Sapp and Brooks, all three forever bonded now as Buc legends on the NFL’s best defense of its era.

Canton’s not finished with this group. Not yet. Ronde Barber and Simeon Rice are still awaiting their group hug.

For Lynch, the waiting was the hardest part. Now he can’t wait to formally join the immortals of the game.

At 6-foot-9 and 400 pounds, David Baker is a towering figure. But on that unforgettable day in Rancho Santa Fe, he was indeed one beautiful sight.