For Tony Dungy, Community Pride And Better Life Come With Victory

Winning, in Tony Dungy's mind, is only important if you win the right way. That might be the single biggest reason that many want to see Indianapolis' head coach win Sunday. "When I took the job in Indy, I told (owner) Jim Irsay and (team president) Bill Polian that our goal was to get to the Super Bowl and win it," Dungy said this week, "but if that's all we do, I won't feel very good about it.

"We've got to win it with a team that our community can be proud of."

That's always been Dungy's vision. He's never strayed from it.

"That's his true genius," said Clyde Christensen, a Colts assistant coach and Dungy's close friend. "I remember it like it was yesterday. He said, 'I want to go win a Super Bowl, and I want to impact a city in a special way.' And that's who I want on my staff. I want people who have a vision beyond the Super Bowl, a vision of impacting people...and making people's lives better."

Much of that approach is grounded in Dungy's Christian faith. It's what guides him. It's what has allowed him to stay the course all the way to Dolphin Stadium and Super Bowl XLI, pitting his Colts against Chicago.

CREATING A PHILOSOPHY

Dungy's philosphy evolved through his personal experiences and the influence of several coaches he either played for or worked for.

The two biggest were Pittsburgh's Chuck Noll and San Francisco's Bill Walsh. Both taught him about treating his players with respect, stressing fundamentals and building a foundation that can withstand the setbacks.

A quarterback at the University of Minnesota, Dungy was switched to safety in the NFL. But it's a switch that turned out to be one of the best things that happened to him, he said, because, "I believe I was meant to be a coach."

Dungy spent one year with each coach (Noll and Walsh) in his shortened, two-year playing career, but what he saw from each coach began to shape his philosophy.

With Noll, he said, "I saw very quickly what a championship team looked like and how you did things."

He was traded to San Francisco after his rookie year and it happened to be Walsh's first year with the 49ers. That team finished 2-14.

"But you could see him putting the groundwork together, and the things he really believed in," Dungy said. "What I saw that year was nothing could make him waver from what he believed in."

GETTING A SHOT

After working his way up to Minnesota's defensive coordinator in the early 1990s, there was a time when he wondered if he would ever get a shot at being a head coach. That was in 1993.

"There were seven openings, and we had the No. 1 defense (at Minnesota), and I didn't get a phone call or an interview," he said.

In 1996, when the Buccaneers had an opening, his call finally came. He was the team's third choice. The Bucs courted Jimmy Johnson and Steve Spurrier, and Spurrier was close to accepting the job before deciding to stay at the University of Florida.

That's when Bucs owner Malcolm Glazer and general manager Rich McKay decided to give Dungy a shot.

Christensen was one of the first people Dungy called when it looked like it might happen.

"He said, 'Hey, I really think this thing's going to work out in Tampa,'" Christensen said. "He tells me about the Glazers, and I remember sitting in my living room thinking, 'A Jewish owner in the south hiring a black born-again guy,' I remember saying, 'This one ain't happening.'

"He called back and said, 'No, I think you're wrong.'"

THE TAMPA YEARS

Taking over what was the worst franchise in the NFL at the time, Dungy and McKay put together a staff that's now spread throughout the NFL.

It includes Chicago head coach Lovie Smith, Detroit coach Rod Marinelli, new Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin, Kansas City coach Herman Edwards, Bucs' defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, who turned down an offer to become San Francisco's head coach, and new Lions defensive coordinator Joe Barry.

The front office at that time included McKay, who's now Atlanta's general manager; Jerry Angelo, the Bears GM; and Tim Ruskell, who helped guide Seattle to the Super Bowl last year as the team's GM.

"I'll say this. I don't think what Dungy's done will ever be done again," Angelo said. "All of the coaching trees you see in the NFL are offensive trees. You'll never see a defensive tree like this again."

In the six years prior to Dungy's arrival, the Bucs were 32-64. In his six years with the team, they were 54-42. They never made it to the Super Bowl. He was fired after the 2001 season.

The Bucs won the Super Bowl the next year under Jon Gruden, but many people feel Gruden won with Dungy's team.

"He laid a Super Bowl foundation in Tampa even though he wasn't there to see the finished product," Christensen said.

Dungy left without bitterness.

"Malcolm Glazer hired me when nobody else would hire me," he said. "If he hadn't, I might be an assistant coach right now. I'll always thank them for giving me that opportunity. At the end of six years, they felt we weren't going the direction they wanted to go. They own the team.

"I thanked them at the time for the opportunity and looked at it as the Lord directed me someplace else."

MAKING AN IMPACT

The Colts hired Dungy less than two weeks after the Bucs fired him. In five years with Indianapolis, he's posted a regular-season record of 60-20.

He lets his players know he cares about them. He teaches without raising his voice. He's proven you can win without spending 24 hours a day, seven days a week at the office. On busy days, Dungy arrives at the office around 8 a.m., and stays until around 9 p.m.

"That excites me and it is important to me," he said. "That's one of the reasons I've enjoyed my career. It's not to generate the wins. It's to help players get better and to show coaches there are many, many ways you can do it.

"That's one of the reasons I'm still in this. I enjoy football, I have a passion for it, but the one thing that really drives me is I've got a desire to show people you can be successful, you can have a good team, you can put out a good product and still have time to take care of your family and still have time to do things away from football.

"Football doesn't have to be 24/7 on your mind to be successful...I hope that message gets out."