MIAMI — John Lynch was flying cross country at this time three years ago with his future literally up in the air, and quite possibly the 49ers’.

Lynch was interviewing to become the 49ers’ general manager, at the recommendation of soon-to-be coach Kyle Shanahan.

Lynch recalled that vetting process Wednesday, on the ramp up to Super Bowl LIV, not to mention his possible election Saturday to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which would make for “a pretty cool weekend,” he said.

When 49ers CEO Jed York met with reporters last week, he credited much of this long-sought turnaround to the harmonious combination of Shanahan and his hand-picked GM. How that union came to be has been documented: Lynch, then a Fox Sports broadcaster, cold-called Shanahan to express interest.

Lynch, speaking off to the side with media Wednesday in a room where 49ers players also were getting interviewed, revealed more details about the extent his job interview, after Shanahan met with York first and bluntly told of the necessary roster overhaul.

Three years ago, with Shanahan preparing for the Super Bowl as the Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator, the GM search suddenly shifted to Lynch, a former hard-hitting safety with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Denver Broncos.

“Kyle was really busy. He was coaching a team,” Lynch said to start recounting the tale. “So he said, you know how Kyle talks, ‘Hey, I’m gonna have this dude, his name’s Jed, give you a call.’

“I said, yeah, I know Jed. And so Jed called. I was at my daughter’s tennis lesson. Jed and I had a nice conversation. He said, ‘I know you have a lot going on. Would you like to look into this opportunity.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I would.’ He said, ‘Well why don’t we get you on a plane and bring you up.’

So Lynch headed north from his San Diego-area home to hang with York, his wife, Danielle, and 49ers executive Paraag Marathe. They dined, talked shop and Lynch ended up spending Jan. 26, 2017 at York’s house.

“The next day, we flew to Atlanta to interview with Kyle altogether, and they kind of interviewed me going across the country,” Lynch said. “They had a very interesting interview process, and I just tried to be me.”

Lynch acknowledged he had no front-office experience and would need to rely on others, which he did have experience with as an expert in NFL teamwork as a player.

What made the interview “very interesting?”

“They kind of had these exercises, a really cool thing where you had like 150 points and that was your salary cap and you put (a roster) together. It’s been communicated to me that Kyle and I’s were almost in sync. Maybe they hired us for that reason.”

On that note, Lynch’s 30-minute interview with reporters ended, a session that exhausted every other pertinent topic that brought the 49ers to the precipice of their sixth Lombardi Trophy.

— On the pass rush: “We have dedicated a lot of resources. That was our intention: Make a group that would be something to be reckoned with each and every week.”

— On Reuben Foster’s November 2018 release being a defining moment for the 49ers, as York suggested last week: “I understand where Jed’s coming from. I’ve got a lot of love for that kid (Foster), so I hate saying he was holding us back. Perhaps though, in terms of the way we were going to operate: It didn’t matter who you were. There are so many examples on this team of guys who weren’t drafted. Kyle often says his dad had the same philosophy, ‘I don’t care if you were drafted, where you were drafted.’ To show a guy that was one of the best football players on our team that you’ve got to live by our rules, we’ll still love you but we have to move on. We made a tough decision. We did that collectively. It was gut-wrenching to do it. He was a heck of a player. I don’t know if it necessarily made us better. But it made everybody understand these guys aren’t playing around.

We tried hard to make it work. We felt we let a lot of people down by going down that road. But we picked each other up and said, ‘Sometime you have to make tough decisions and we’re moving forward.'”

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49ers voice complaints about turf at MetLife Stadium, play there again next Sunday — On what it would mean to make the Hall of Fame: “The Hall does a very nice job, starting tomorrow, of doing a series of events. It used to be you show up and you’re in or you’re out. If you’re out, get on a plane, see you later. David (Baker, the Hall’s president), has made it a nice deal, where they take you to the honors show and have a great bunch of events. Fortunately my mind is occupied and I have a lot of other duties, so I haven’t thought about it a whole lot, but I have thought it could be a very special weekend.”

— On the “Mobile-to-Miami” storyline tracing their Super Bowl run back to last January’s Senior Bowl coaching experience: “Just not even Mobile, that first year being 0-9 (in 2017) and looking at each other and still feeling good about where we were going. In Tampa, when we won our Super Bowl (in the 2002 season), I remember Warren Sapp saying, ‘We’re going from a third-world country to the Taj Mahal. There was something sweet about starting from the bottom. … When you go through struggles together, and you come out the other side, it makes the bond closer. Adversity, you’re really tested, your beliefs and relationships are tested. We stuck to our beliefs.”

— On pending extensions with free agents or players due for one: “I’m happy to do it. I love paying guys who deserve to be paid. I love paying anyone. These guys work really hard for what they do. Having said that, one thing that made this job attractive for Kyle and I, we had a blank slate. They cleared the books and we had a lot of resources at our disposal. That is tightening up a little. We understood that was coming. But there will be tough decisions. We have done a nice job planning that, looking out three or four years. We’ll play the game this week then really start focusing on (extending) players.”