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Dungy Listens To Heart

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 22, 2008

We forgive Tony Dungy for one of my pet peeves - the coach's no-news conference to announce he isn't going anywhere.

Dungy was on the phone, laughing.

"This was baffling to me that we had this big news conference when there's nothing really going on," he said.

Or maybe there was. Dungy will stay with the Colts. He'll be with them next season and maybe for seasons after that.

Good.

He made it official on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Even better.

For sitting next to Dungy was his handpicked successor, Colts offensive coordinator Jim Caldwell. Two African-Americans on MLK Day. So subtle, but so uplifting.

Granted, I'd rather have Dungy be NFL commissioner or president or something, but we're good with the coaching.

Tampa doesn't get Dungy back just yet. We can understand why the Colts wanted him back. The man is a keeper. Too bad the Glazers never thought that.

Dungy listened to his heart, and his wife and his children. They prayed. He says they decided as a family.

"I wouldn't shortchange my family," Dungy said.

Thought Long And Hard

That said, some people are surprised - and perplexed.

The signs pointed to Dungy leaving football, signs such as his son Eric enrolling in high school here in Tampa.

But Dungy, who lives family first, will coach in Indianapolis while his wife and four of their children will live in Tampa.

I know the man well enough to know he's no hypocrite. I also know I'd never want to work anyplace where my wife and children weren't, especially if we'd lived the tragedy the Dungys lived a few years ago.

Dungy listened - and understood.

"We thought long and hard about it. I even thought about the perception," he said.

"I can very easily understand people wondering about it, because people don't have all the facts, and they've been thinking about different things, about what they would do or read into it. It's really hard for them to understand we can sit down as a family, we can pray about it, pray about where the Lord would have all of us and come to the conclusion that this is the best thing. That's what we did, and that's not easy for everyone else to understand, nor would I have them understand it."

Winning a Super Bowl didn't make Dungy walk away. Being knocked out of the playoffs this season didn't make him walk away.

There's no formula. Only your head and heart.

Dungy has never measured his success in life by games, but the football was a factor. Is it the competition? The platform coaching brings?

"It's a little bit of everything," Dungy said. "I just really see this as a ministry that the Lord has me in. He gave me the talent to do this ... I do look at it as more than a job. If I did stop, what would I do? I'd be looking to work with young men, looking to advance the gospel. I can still do that right now."

NFL Needs Dungy

The NFL should be dancing in the end zone this morning. It needs Dungy. There's no brighter point of light in the league, maybe even in the country.

At Monday's news conference, Dungy sat with Jim Caldwell. It was MLK Day.

"I didn't set it up this way, but this day has turned out to be very appropriate," Dungy said. "It's pretty reflective of what Dr. King said. We've come to a day with decisions about the head coach, and the new head coach one day, and both happen to be African-American - and that's not the central issue. We're talking about other things. Nobody seems to care about that. It's just accepted. I think Dr. King would like that."

We all should.

So now we have the 2008 season scenario. Tony Dungy returns to football and takes the Colts back to the next Super Bowl. It's in Tampa next season. He wins. He retires. He goes out on top.

Dungy laughs.

"I can honestly say it didn't go into the equation when I was trying to figure out what to do."

And now he has.

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