Tony Dungy
Anthony Kevin Dungy is an American former professional football safety and coach who served as a head coach in the National Football League for 13 seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Indianapolis Colts. His teams became perennial postseason contenders under his leadership, missing the playoffs only twice with Tampa Bay. He led the Colts to victory in Super Bowl XLI, making him the first African American head coach to win the Super Bowl.
Dungy began his head coaching tenure in 1996 with the Buccaneers, a franchise regarded as one of the league's worst. Through implementation of the Tampa 2 defensive scheme, he brought new success to the Buccaneers, leading them to four playoff appearances in six seasons. He was fired after the 2001 playoffs due to frequent postseason struggles, but is credited with constructing the team that won Super Bowl XXXVII the following year. After his departure from Tampa Bay, he served as the Colts' head coach for seven seasons, qualifying for the playoffs in each. His greatest success occurred with the Colts' Super Bowl-winning season in 2006, the franchise's first in over three decades and the first since relocating to Indianapolis. He retired from coaching following the 2008 season.
Since retiring, Dungy has served as an analyst on NBC's Football Night in America. He is also the national spokesman for the fatherhood program All Pro Dad. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016.
Early life
Born and raised in Jackson, Michigan, Dungy's parents were Wilbur Dungy, a science professor at Jackson College and Delta College, and Cleomae Dungy, who taught Shakespeare at Jackson High School. Wilbur served as a pilot in the Army Air Forces during World War II with the famed Tuskegee Airmen. After graduating from Parkside High School in 1973, Dungy played college football at the University of Minnesota, and was the Gophers' quarterback and most valuable player in 1975 and 1976. In 1977, he was awarded the Big Ten Medal of Honor, recognizing one student athlete from the graduating class of each Big Ten member school, for demonstrating joint athletic and academic excellence throughout their college career.Professional career
After going undrafted, Dungy signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers as a free agent and was converted to defensive back, going on to play three seasons in the NFL. His best season was in 1978, when he intercepted six passes and won a championship ring with the Steelers in Super Bowl XIII.Dungy is the most recent NFL player to intercept a pass and throw an interception in the same game. Dungy was the emergency quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in a 1977 game against the Houston Oilers when both Terry Bradshaw and Mike Kruczek went down with injuries on October 9.
Coaching career
Assistant coaching positions
After being cut by the New York Giants in training camp before the 1980 season, Dungy returned to Minnesota as defensive backfield coach. He took the same position with the Steelers in 1982, and was promoted in 1984 to defensive coordinator. Following a 5–11 season in 1988, Steelers owner Dan Rooney forced head coach Chuck Noll to make changes to his coaching staff, which included demoting Dungy back to defensive backs coach.From 1989 to 1991, Dungy served as defensive backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs, under head coach Marty Schottenheimer. From 1992 to 1995, he served as the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings under head coach Dennis Green.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Dungy became an NFL head coach when he was hired by Rich McKay to reform the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team then well known for its lack of success, on January 22, 1996. Dungy installed his version of the Cover 2 defense with defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin with a few new wrinkles. The result was the now-famous Tampa 2, though Dungy openly admitted it was based on concepts he had picked up from his days in Pittsburgh.Following the 2002 season, the Buccaneers won Super Bowl XXXVII, their first appearance in the championship game. Dungy was fired after the prior season and replaced with Jon Gruden because he could not get the team there, but is now credited with developing the team’s championship-caliber foundation.
Dungy's 56 victories were the most in Buccaneers history until 2008 when Jon Gruden surpassed him with his 57th win.
Indianapolis Colts
On January 22, 2002, Dungy was hired as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, a team that at the time was potent offensively but weak defensively. He installed his "Tampa 2" defense immediately and continued to retool the Colts' defense to his liking during his tenure. After joining the Colts, Dungy left the high-powered offense previously installed there by Jim Mora, in both playing style and in personnel, virtually unchanged. Dungy was reunited with Tom Moore, who was retained as offensive coordinator. Moore and Dungy had previously worked together at Minnesota and Pittsburgh.During his early tenure in Indianapolis, Dungy struggled to fix the Colts' defense and had mixed results in the postseason. In his first season at Indianapolis, the Colts were shut out 41–0 by the New York Jets in a first-round playoff game, and the team lost postseason games to the New England Patriots in both 2003 and 2004. Dungy signed a three-year contract extension in October 2005 for US$5 million per year.
The Colts' 2006 playoff run was characterized by a marked improvement in defensive play, as the Colts defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, holding one of the NFL's best running backs to less than 50 yards, and beat the Baltimore Ravens in the divisional round. On January 21, 2007, after trailing 21–3, the Colts defeated the New England Patriots to become AFC champions and advanced to Super Bowl XLI. This was the largest comeback in conference title-game history. Dungy coached the Colts to a 29–17 victory over the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. Dungy became the first African-American head coach to win a Super Bowl. Dungy would coach two more seasons in Indianapolis, retiring after the 2008 season.
Coaching firsts
Dungy's career has included several notable firsts. Among them, Dungy is the first NFL head coach to defeat all 32 NFL teams. He was also the youngest assistant coach at age 25 and the youngest coordinator at age 28 in NFL history.Coaching strategy
On offense, Tony Dungy's strategy involved a conservative, ball-control offense based primarily around running the ball and short, high-percentage passes when he was at Tampa Bay. At Indianapolis, he inherited and kept the offense designed by offensive coordinator Tom Moore because the offense was in the hands of someone he knew and trusted.On defense, Dungy used a stifling "Cover 2"-style zone defense, which usually was based around a formation of four linemen, three linebackers, and four defensive backs. The "Cover 2" defense Dungy used involved his linemen rushing the passer, the cornerbacks covering the passing flat area, the linebackers covering the middle of the field, and the safeties providing deep coverage on each half of their respective zones. While the Cover 2 defense was not a new concept, Dungy contributed to its greater use by systemizing it into an every-down defense. The personnel and techniques that Dungy used in this defense were very specific, and as a result, his style of defense earned the moniker of the "Tampa 2" around the NFL.
Dungy is mentioned in the book Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg, in chapter 3: "The Golden Rule of Habit Change."
Coaching philosophy
Dungy stresses that coaches are essentially teachers.His protege, Lovie Smith, observed, "We talked about how to do it, being a teacher instead of screaming and yelling, all that stuff...
I think as you look to young coaches coming up in the ranks, a lot of us have a picture of how a coach is supposed to be, how he is supposed to act. And I think what Tony Dungy showed me is you don't have to act that way."
Dungy said:
Dungy also learned from Noll that it takes all 53 of the players on the team to win so that a coach should train the 53rd player on the roster as he would the third player, which has become the spine of Dungy's own coaching philosophy, the Next Man Up theory of calm coaching. Dungy stressed that a team should have a thought process, a philosophy, and the conviction to stick with it, even if personnel change during the games because of injuries. Dungy said:
Dungy put his coaching beliefs on his memoir, Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life. Cam Cameron, former head coach of the Miami Dolphins, highly recommended the book by buying 1,000 books to give away to football coaches at his preseason coaching clinic in July 2007 in South Florida, and said:
Instant replay opposition
Dungy opposes the use of replay review in the NFL. In 1997, after a failed vote by NFL owners to reinstate instant replay, Dungy said that he would have favored replay if it were applicable to all calls and if it were not associated with a team's timeouts. The Tampa Bay Times described Dungy as "vehemently opposed" to replay in 2003, after the league had resumed using it.In 2002, Dungy acknowledged he made a mistake by not challenging one of Peyton Manning's interceptions, and he also criticized the league's handling of replay challenges. "We have plays where whistles are blown too fast, and I think we're getting to the point where we're letting coaches officiate the game," said Dungy, who said that it had become a trend for officials to expect coaches to challenge controversial calls.
Dungy has continued to criticize the NFL's replay system in his role as a broadcaster on NBC. In 2019, after a failed challenge by Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur, who contended that the Philadelphia Eagles committed pass interference that was not called on the field, Dungy said on television that the replay system was not working as intended. Dungy posted on his Twitter account, "That's terrible. I don't understand this replay review of Pass Interference. That one on Philadelphia couldn't have been more clear cut. If they're not going to reverse that one I don't see how they can reverse any call."