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Family Is Here; Job Is In Indiana

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By JOEY JOHNSTON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 22, 2008

Updated: 01/22/2008 12:13 am

INDIANAPOLIS - Tony Dungy spent most of last week in Tampa, his adopted hometown, deliberating about his future. Would he return for a seventh season as head coach of the NFL's Indianapolis Colts?

Most people acted as if the decision had been made.

"Wherever I went in Tampa, it was, 'Tony, we're so glad you're retiring, and we'll be seeing you again. Tony, you're back where you belong,'" Dungy said with a laugh following Monday's news conference at Colts headquarters.

"It's funny. Sometimes, people don't believe what you say, that you're really thinking things through. They believe what they want to believe. 'OK, you say that, but what's the real story?' There were way too many assumptions."

Maybe that's why Monday's announcement - Dungy said he's staying with the Colts next season (and maybe beyond) - was viewed as a stunner.

His wife, Lauren, and four of the couple's children have returned to Tampa for full-time residency. His son, Eric, who will be a junior in the fall, will play wide receiver at Plant High School.

"Too much was read into" Eric going to Plant and leaving Park Tudor High School in Indianapolis, said Dungy, 52, the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach (1996-2001). "My wife made the decision because of Plant's academics. We knew we didn't want to be putting him into a new high school for his senior year, so this was a good time to get him settled.

"We moved him down there with the idea that I could very well be retiring and going down there with him. But that's not how it turned out. We prayed about it as a family. It's not like they didn't want me to coach and I did. We're all on one accord with this decision. If Lauren and Eric would've said, 'No, we want you here,' I would've walked away. This is a family decision."

Dungy said he understood some people will view the decision as hypocritical. He wouldn't elaborate on why the family chose to move away from Indianapolis, other than to say, "There are things in our family that don't need to be public, but we have our kids' best interests in mind, and we think we're going to be OK."

The Dungy family was rocked in 2005 with the suicide of James, the oldest son, who attended college in Tampa while the parents lived in Indianapolis. Dungy has been a tireless volunteer for Family First, a Tampa-based nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening families.

He wasn't around full-time for his children his first season in Indianapolis "and he did it successfully," said Darrin Gray, Family First's director of partner development. "I know Tony will still be a committed dad.

"We all make difficult choices. He wouldn't continue on as a coach if he couldn't be a superb dad."

Dungy said he has first-hand experience with father-son separation. His father, Wilbur, worked 80 miles away as a junior college professor in Saginaw, Mich., during Dungy's high school years in Jackson, Mich.

"He lived in an apartment during the week, but every time we had a big basketball game on a Tuesday night, my dad was there," Dungy said. "I don't know how he did it. But I never felt he missed anything. We saw him on the weekends. This can be done."

As part of the enticement to retain Dungy, Colts owner Jim Irsay offered use of the organization's private plane so the coach could see his son play high school football in Tampa.

"There can be some negative things brought up about Dungy's separation from his family, but I don't really buy into any of them," said Irsay, who has appointed associate head coach Jim Caldwell as the successor when Dungy steps away. "Tony's committed to his family, committed to this franchise and he does a great job of balancing that. It's going to be business as usual."

In his early seasons with the Bucs, Dungy often said he would probably retire by age 50.

Now, for the third straight season, Dungy has opted for a return to the sidelines after debating a full-time transition to his prison ministry and church causes.

He can't yet make the break - partly because of his competitiveness, partly because he views his NFL head-coaching position as a ministry.

"It is a platform," Dungy said. "I do take my faith seriously. You say, 'Hey, I could stop doing this and try to start another ministry,' but I might not have as effective a ministry as I have right now. When I speak, it's in the public eye.

"Part of thinking about this and deciding was hearing from players I've coached before and hearing them thank you for the input you've had in their lives. That has an impact on you. I see it as a little bit more than a job. When all that is rolled in, it sort of becomes an obvious decision for me."

Even though it was viewed as a surprise by so many others.

Reporter Michelle Bearden contributed to this report. Reporter Joey Johnston can be reached at (813) 259-7353 or jjohnston@tampatrib.com.

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