Chargers’ coach Anthony Lynn’s connection with Dallas Cowboys comes full circle

Los Angeles Chargers coach Anthony Lynn thankful for the help of Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys during a dark moment of his life

It's a moment that will live in infamy for Lynn.

In 2005, while a member of Bill Parcell's Dallas Cowboys coaching staff, Lynn was struck by a drunk driver while crossing the street after dinner in Ventura, Calif.

It started out as a normal night following training camp practices and ended as one being a miracle that he didn't die _ considering the drunk driver was going upward of 55 to 60 miles an hour when he collided with Lynn, knocking him 50 feet in the air before landing on a banked car.

Lynn had to endure four surgeries and a long recovery process, but he endured it all, survived it and ultimately succeeded because of the support and help of Jones and the Cowboys.

When Lynn's Chargers take on the Cowboys in today's Thanksgiving battle, it's a homecoming for the Celina native, but he also returns with gratitude and appreciation for his former employers.

“It means a lot, just to show you how things go full circle growing up in that area admiring the Cowboys organization and then having the opportunity to coach there,” Lynn said during a conference call this week with reporters at The Star. “And then going through one of the darkest moments of my life, and the organization helped me through that, and now to get a chance to go back as a head coach and go against the Cowboys, just things are kind of going full circle.

“I'm just very thankful for that.”

Lynn said Jones and the Cowboys went above and beyond to help him during the recovery process while facilitating his return to coaching.

"Just taking care of me and my family," Lynn said. "I don't think my wife cooked a meal for three weeks. I had a driver to take me back and forth to work. When I got to work everybody made accommodations for me there, so that I could get back quicker doing what I love to do.

"It just made that process a lot easier for me."

Lynn was with the Cowboys for two seasons, 2005-2006. He then coached with the Cleveland Browns, the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills before becoming head coach of the Chargers in 2017.

He is the sixth coach from Parcells' Cowboys staffs to become an NFL head coach, joining joins Todd Bowles, Todd Haley, Sean Payton, Tony Sparano and Mike Zimmer.

“That was a very talented staff and I learned a lot when I was there in Dallas under Coach Parcells with all those coaches,” Lynn said. “We talk to this day. I talked to Sean last week. I talk to Tony Sparano, Todd Haley, Todd Bowles, Mike Zimmer. We all stay in touch. It was a very unique staff.”

This story was originally published November 23, 2017 at 1:33 PM with the headline "Chargers’ coach Anthony Lynn’s connection with Dallas Cowboys comes full circle."