A Lott to cheer about.

All-American, All-Pro, four Super Bowl rings, 10 Pro Bowl appearances, a membership on the NFL's 75th Anniversary all-time team - put them all together and you have Ronnie Lott's peerless stat sheet. Nobody has ever played his position (designated hitter) any better or amassed as many big "hits."

COACH: You achieved excellence with three different NFL teams. What set the San Francisco 49ers apart from the others?

LOTT: Everyone within that organization - from the secretary and equipment manager up to the players, coaches, and management - believes they are champions, and the only demand they make upon you is to be the best you can be.

That attitude permeates the organization and robs off on everyone, including the players.

I honestly believe that the more you can surround yourself with winning attitudes, the easier it becomes to create a winning organization.

COACH: Who, in your opinion, has to set that tone - players, coach, or owners?

LOTT: The tone must be set from the very top. The owner. People will see how he treats people, and it will work its way down to the head coach and the coaching staff, all the way down to the equipment guy.

COACH: You also played for five different coaches - Bill Walsh, George Seiffert, Art Shell, Bruce Coslet, Pete Carroll. How, as a defensive player, did you react to changing coaches and did any of them make any significantly different demands on you?

LOTT: They all make different demands on you. They all have their own styles in terms of how they teach. The smart athlete will adapt to certain situations. A great coach, being a great teacher, will make the player understand that this is a different situation. The athlete has to learn to be patient and try to learn the system "our way" - the way it is being presented to him. He'll then have a greater chance to be productive.

I always knew that, wherever I had to play or work, the environment was going to be different, and I had to be able to adapt to it.

COACH: Did you ever come across a situation where, for whatever reason, you couldn't adapt?

LOTT: Fortunately, no. I'm sure there are times when picking up the system, or the way to do things, can become impossible, but fortunately I never encountered that. I also tried to make it a point to avoid situations like that.

COACH: We interviewed Bill Walsh this year, and he said that one of the keys to the success of the 49ers was that their system drew out the very best in its players. Would you agree with that? And how, from a player's standpoint, was he able to accomplish that?

LOTT: It's easy for Bill to say that, because it happened with the offense. It's not quite as simple for a defensive player. A defensive system is less predictable. It's difficult for a defensive system to allow players to make plays because they basically are making plays off other people's reactions.

What Bill did put in place was a system that allowed people to be productive and flourish without having the stigma of being a rookie or being a first-year guy to the team. Those are the things that helped people feel comfortable and helped them feel part of the organization, as opposed to feeling apprehensive. And that's what you need: players to come in and feel comfortable and feel like they're part of the organization.

Bill put those types of things into place. Players never had to worry about cliques - cliques of this athlete versus that athlete, or cliques of how much a guy is making, or what race he is - a lot of things that other coaches maybe don't pay attention to as much as they should. Once you break down those barriers, it becomes easier for a player to communicate with another player.

I think that's what Bill did better than any coach I've been around: allowing people to feel that they can contribute, regardless of their backgrounds, values, thoughts, beliefs, or ways they played the game. That was very impressive coaching.

COACH: Twice in your career you came into an organization under a head coach who was offense-oriented and then saw that organization switch to a defense-oriented coach. As a standout defensive player, did this change the tone of the team, the defensive unit, or your own individual play?

LOTT: A lot of people think it does have a real impact, but it actually doesn't. People think that when a defensive coach takes over, the defensive unit is suddenly going to be the favorite son. It doesn't matter whether the coach is an offensive coach or a defensive coach. Ultimately, the coach becomes a coach who wants to win.

Labels such as he's a defensive coach, an offensive coach, a player's coach, you usually throw out the window. As a player, it all comes down to winning. That goal is more important than whether the coach is one of my guys or I am one of his guys.

COACH: What drew you to playing defensive back?

LOTT: I never really had the choice. I just wanted to play. I was put at defensive back because that was where my coaches felt I could succeed. When I went to high school and when I was at SC, I didn't have the opportunity to make the choice. The only choice I made was wanting to play, and that I wanted to do real bad.

Coaches have authority. If they are the men who make up the team and decide what will work and what won't work, it shouldn't matter where you play. It never mattered to me. I just wanted to play. If they wanted me to play defensive back, great, I was going to play defensive back. If that meant bringing water to the guys, I'd have done that.

COACH: Who really taught you the position?

LOTT: Dennis Thurmond and Don Lindsay were probably my two greatest teachers, at SC. And then throw in Norv Turner who helped me as a senior, and Bob Toledo, who helped shape me as a player. They all taught me the position, what it took and how to react and such. Those four coaches really had the greatest impact on my career.

COACH: What's the hardest part of playing defensive back?

LOTT: Knowing you can get beat on every play. The next hardest thing is getting beat, because you have to be able to put that aside and move on. It's like making a bad golf shot. You just have to say, "All right, I took a bad shot. But if I keep focusing on that, I'm not going to be able to play the next hole." Then the whole game is gone.

If you're back there in the secondary and you get beat and you can't shake it off, you might as well just come out of the game. And then, if you're the starter, the leader, you've let your team down. Defensive backs have to have short memories.

COACH: Who were the toughest quarterbacks and receivers you ever played against?

LOTT: I faced the toughest guys in practice. I used to have to practice against Jerry Rice, and he was the toughest receiver I ever faced. What's more, he loved to beat me. And that just made me work harder, which made me better.

Likewise, I never faced a quarterback tougher than Joe Montana. Both those guys had that extra motivation, but I knew that on Sunday there was a good chance that nobody on the other side of the ball was going to be as tough to handle as the guys I had been looking at all week.

As far as guys we played, Dan Fouts was one of the greatest quarterbacks I ever faced over my career. He was a great thrower, he was a great leader, but more than anything, he was a great competitor. You could get him down, but you knew you couldn't keep him there for long. When we played the Chargers, I knew I had to be at the top of my game and my concentration to keep him from beating me. That's why I enjoyed playing him.

COACH: Have you noticed any big changes in the NFL since you came into the league in 1980?

LOTT: Not in terms of the way the game is played. I think the game is still essentially played the same way. A lot of people believe that the West Coast Offense we played in San Francisco changed the game, but I don't think so. Let's face it, people have been throwing short passes for as long as any of us can remember. I used to see even long-ball threats like Lance Alworth score on a slant pattern! They might do it more nowadays, but I don't think it's a change in the game.

The biggest change I've seen has been in the people who play the game. They are bigger and more athletic, especially the guys up front - the offensive and defensive lines. There was a time that Bubba Paris had to lose weight to remain a starter, and now everyone is looking for Bubba Paris-size people - 300-pounders.

COACH: In all your years in the NFL, did you ever hear of coaches paying bounties for knocking out opposing quarterbacks?

LOTT: You can call it what you want, but everyone is using some kind of "motivation" to get people to play hard. If you want to call it a bounty, so be it. I'll continue to call it a motivation.

Coaches motivate in different ways. It can be with bounties, or with a sticker on your helmet. It's all the same thing. You see those big defensive college players walking around with all those buckeyes or tomahawks on their helmets, you know they got them for hitting guys. No difference between that and pay. Same thing.

COACH: You were one of the hardest hitting defensive backs in the game. Did that kind of tackling come naturally to you?

LOTT: I picked up hitting people hard when I was a little kid. When I first watched football, I watched the way Dick Butkus hit somebody or the way Jack Tatum or Ray Nitschke hit ball-carriers. That's what got me motivated, got me to like the game.

When I was a little kid, I thought scoring touchdowns was big, but I thought hitting people as hard as I could was also big. I got just as much adulation doing that as I did scoring a touchdown or running back a kick. For me, it was the same thrill, my ultimate reward. There was nothing I loved more than getting the big hit.

COACH: How do you feel about athletes serving as role models for young people?

LOTT: Everyone is a role model every day. Someone is looking at you, trying to figure out how to make it in this world. Whether it's your dad, or your mom, or even you and I doing this article or people reading this article and saying "I like the way he writes," we are always emulating others.

People are going to look at me and say, "What positive can I take from him?" So I try to do as many positive things as I possibly can to help people. I feel we all have to be mindful of that.

COACH: How do you feel about instant replay, having played under it and without it?

LOTT: Instant replay should be in the league. It's necessary. Television is part of our game. It has a direct effect on how we watch the game. So let's use it to make the game fairer, to make the right call.

Ten or 20 years ago, when we didn't have TV or it wasn't as influential or useful, we didn't have people who could sit there and judge plays that quickly. But now, because of TV and the different angles used and all the cameras we have, we can use it. If I'm a fan, I want to see the right call. If I'm a player I want to see the right call, and if I'm a coach I want to see the right call.

I hate to see a team or a player victimized by a bad call, see a game lost by a wrong call. I'm not sure instant replay improves the game, but it certainly makes for a fairer game.

COACH: What do you think of guys like Deion Sanders going both ways?

LOTT: I admire those guys tremendously, guys like Deion and Rod Woodson who can play both ways and do it well. It's just another aspect of the team game - trying to get your best people on the football field. Players like Deion have the ability to change the complexion of the game with their speed. So why not use it?

Does it hurt the game? Depends on how you use it. I think that Deion was used inappropriately in certain situations last year, and he was not as effective as he should have been.

COACH: How did you feel when you learned you'd been chosen for the 75th Anniversary Team?

LOTT: Great! It meant that people respected me for the way I played the game. If they felt that I was one of the best to play the game, great. Other people might disagree with that, and I'm sure that there were safeties who might have played better, but that's okay. I was very thrilled, and that's all that really mattered.

COACH: Did you encounter any specific problems moving to broadcasting?

LOTT: Sure, every day. Any time you move into a new business, you have problems - trying to get comfortable and trying to keep improving. I feel that I have a long way to go in this business.

COACH: Do you ever see yourself doing anything else in football?

LOTT: Not beyond the two things I'm doing now, broadcasting and working with George Anderson on his magnetic therapy project.

George and I first started working together when I was with the Raiders. He was the trainer and he kept me physically fit. I had arthritic knees and several other problems with my body. George equipped me with a brace that contained opposing magnets, that increased the blood flow and did all other sorts of good things. And it allowed me to extend my career. Pretty soon, we saw other players in the NFL, and other sports, using what George had developed.

With high school sports programs facing budget problems and not having full medical staff, the magnetic therapy can keep athletes and other young people healthy. I'm now helping George out on his project.

I've been fortunate in so many ways in my career and I like to feel that I'm putting something back into the game.