Tony Dungy

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Tony Dungy
Date of birth	October 6, 1955 (age 51)
Place of birth	Jackson, Michigan
Position(s)	Head Coach Defensive back
College	University of Minnesota
Career Highlights
Career Record	114-62-0 (Regular Season) 9-8 (Postseason) 123-70-0 (Overall)
Super Bowl       Wins	2006 Super Bowl XLI (as head coach) 1978 Super Bowl XIII (as player)
Championships       Won	2006 AFC Championship (as head coach) 1978 AFC Championship (as player)
Playing Stats	DatabaseFootball
Coaching Stats	Pro Football Reference
Coaching Stats	DatabaseFootball
Team(s) as a player
1977-1978 1979	Pittsburgh Steelers San Francisco 49ers
Team(s) as a coach/administrator
1980 1981-1983 1984-1988 1989-1991 1992-1995 1996-2001 2002-Present	University of Minnesota (defensive backs coach) Pittsburgh Steelers (defensive backs coach) Pittsburgh Steelers (defensive coordinator) Kansas City Chiefs (defensive backs coach) Minnesota Vikings (defensive coordinator) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (head coach) Indianapolis Colts (head coach)

Anthony Kevin "Tony" Dungy [DUN-jee] (born October 6, 1955) is a former professional American football player and the current head coach of the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League. Prior to that, between 1996 and 2001, he was the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He became the first African American head coach to win the Super Bowl when his Colts defeated the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. He is the third person in the history of NFL (along with Mike Ditka and Tom Flores) to win Super Bowls as a player and a head coach.

Contents 1 Early life 2 College career 3 Professional career 4 Coaching career 4.1 Assistant coaching positions 4.2 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 4.3 Indianapolis Colts 4.4 Coaching style 5 Coaching tree and philosophy 6 Personal 7 Trivia 8 References and notes 9 External links

[edit] Early life

Born in Jackson, Michigan, Dungy is one of the four children of Wilbur and Cleomae Dungy, both of whom were educators. They encouraged a focus on academics early on in their children's lives. Tony Dungy attended Parkside High School, where he played the guard position on the basketball team and the quarterback position on the football team.

[edit] College career

Dungy was recruited by University of Minnesota coach Cal Stoll and played for the Golden Gophers from 1973 to 1976. He entered the starting lineup as a quarterback during his freshman year and after playing for four years finished as Minnesota's career leader in pass attempts (576), completions (274), touchdown passes (25), and passing yards (3,577). He also finished fourth in career total offense in the Big Ten Conference. He received Minnesota's Most Valuable Player award twice. Dungy also played basketball as a freshman and coincidentally was a teammate of current Detroit Pistons head coach Flip Saunders.

[edit] Professional career

Following college, Dungy entered the National Football League as a free agent playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers for two seasons, where he played as a backup safety during Pittsburgh's Steel Curtain dynasty. In the Steelers' Super Bowl winning season of 1978, he was promoted to starter and led the team with six interceptions.

After defeating the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XIII (Dungy forced a fumble that set up a Steelers touchdown in the game), Pittsburgh traded Dungy to the San Francisco 49ers in 1979, where he played one year. The 49ers traded him to the New York Giants at the beginning of the 1980 season, but he was cut during training camp. Subsequently, he retired from the National Football League.

In his three NFL seasons, Dungy recorded nine interceptions, which he returned for 132 yards. He also recovered nine fumbles and returned eight punts for 52 yards. During one game Dungy notched an NFL first for the Pittsburgh Steelers, filling in as quarterback after starting as safety. He became the first to throw an interception and make an interception in a single NFL game.^[1]

[edit] Coaching career

[edit] Assistant coaching positions

Following his retirement, Dungy was invited to become an assistant coach for his alma mater, the University of Minnesota in 1980. After one season in charge of defensive backs, he was asked to come back to the NFL as a coach. He was hired as an assistant coach with the Steelers by Chuck Noll, his former coach, in 1981.

In 1982, he was named defensive backfield coach, and was promoted in 1984 to defensive coordinator. He left the Steelers in 1989 to become the defensive backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs, and took over the defensive coordinator position for the Minnesota Vikings in 1992. While at Minnesota, Dungy's defense was ranked first in the NFL.

[edit] Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Dungy finally achieved his dream when he was hired as head coach by Rich McKay to reform the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team well-known for its lack of success, in 1995. Dungy installed his version of the Cover 2 defense with Defensive Coordinator Monte Kiffin with a few new wrinkles now known as the famous Tampa 2. Despite losing his first handfull of games in 1996, the Bucs finished strong and showed signs of turning it around. After a home win vs the Raiders, The Bucs fell to a quick 14-0 hole to the Chargers in San Diego, where the Bucs hadnt won on the west coast in over 15 years. Instead of folding it in, Tampa Bay fought to a hard win, that many feel was the game the team turned the tide around in. In 1997, the Buccaneers finished second in the NFC Central division, Tampa Bay's first winning season since 1982 after starting the season 5-0 matching the only time the Bucs were ever undefeated with as many wins in the 1979 season. In the last game played at Tampa Stadium, the Bucs defeated the Detroit Lions in their first playoff game, losing the next game to the defending champion Green Bay Packers.

Under Dungy's watch, the Buccaneers went to the playoffs four times times and won their division in 1999 only to lose to the St Louis Rams in the NFC Championship Game. However Tampa Bay under Dungy struggled out of the Gate to 3-4 records in his last four seasons. Also, in his last three playoff games, Tampa Bay was offensively shut out. Constant changes to the offensive coordinator position despite a successful 2000 offensive ranking was alot to blame, as QB Shaun King had to work with 3 different coordinators in 3 years. Dungy was fired by the team in 2001 due to the club's repeated losses in the playoffs including two lopsided defeats (in 2000 and 2001) to the Philadelphia Eagles; and because it was determined by the team's higher management that the conservative offense that Dungy ran was too inconsistent against NFL teams. The following year, the Buccaneers easily defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2002 NFC Championship game under coach Jon Gruden en route to the club's first Super Bowl appearance and victory.

[edit] Indianapolis Colts

On January 22, 2002, Dungy was hired as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, a team that at the time was very potent offensively, but very weak defensively. He installed his "Tampa 2" defense immediately and ever since has set about retooling the Colts' defense to his liking. Since joining the Colts, Dungy has left the high-powered offense previously installed there by Jim Mora, in both playing style and in personnel, virtually unchanged. Dungy would be 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 has had mixed results in the post season. 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 (in the AFC championship game) and 2004 (in the second round of the playoffs). Dungy signed a three-year contract extension in 2005 for US$5 million per year.

The Colts focused on defensive improvements during the 2005 off season, signing five-year defensive tackle Corey Simon. Widely expected to be a Super Bowl contender, the Colts won their first 13 games, prompting much speculation about the possibility of the Colts becoming the NFL's first team to finish the season undefeated since the 1972 Miami Dolphins.

However, this dream was shattered when the Colts lost their 14th game to the San Diego Chargers. The Colts did manage to obtain home field advantage throughout the playoffs, but were defeated in the divisional playoff round against the Pittsburgh Steelers. This loss made the Colts the first team to ever start a season 13-0 and not reach the Super Bowl.

The Colts 2006 playoff run was characterized by a marked improvement in defensive play, as the Colts defeated the Kansas City Chiefs and upset the favored 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 the conference-title game history.^[2]

On February 4, 2007, Dungy and the Indianapolis Colts won Super Bowl XLI 29-17 over Lovie Smith and the Chicago Bears at Dolphin Stadium in Miami.

[edit] Coaching style

Dungy's coaching strategy involves a conservative, ball-control offense based primarily around running the ball and short, high-percentage passes, combined with a stifling "Cover 2" style zone defense, which is usually based on a formation with 4 linemen, 3 linebackers, and 4 defensive backs. While coaching the Indianapolis Colts however, most of the offensive planning has been handled by his offensive coordinator.

The "Cover 2" defense Dungy uses involves having 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 is not a new concept, the personnel that Dungy uses in this defense is very specific, and as a result, his style of defense has earned the moniker of the "Tampa 2" around the NFL .

The personnel Dungy uses in the Tampa 2 are specific in position and required abilities. All positions in his defense place a premium on speed, and often the result is that they are all undersized by league standards. The defensive linemen in his scheme have to be quick and agile enough to create pressure on the quarterback without the aid of a blitz from either the linebackers or the secondary, with the defensive tackle in the nose position having above-average tackling skills to help stop the run.

The three linebackers and two cornerbacks are responsible for covering the middle of the field. The outside linebackers general zone is between the cornerbacks covering the area of the field from the line of scrimmage to 10 yards back. The middle linebacker must have better-than-average speed, and additional skills to be able to read the play and either maintain his central position to help the outside linebackers cover short passes, drop behind the linebackers in coverage and protect the zone of the field behind the outside linebackers from 11-20 yards out, or run up to the line of scrimmage to help assist in stopping the run. The cornerbacks protect the sidelines of the field from the line of scrimmage to anywhere between 15-20 yards out. An additional requirement for all of Dungy's linebackers and cornerbacks is to be above-average tacklers, as they are usually the primary tacklers in the defense.

The two safeties are responsible for covering their respective halves of the field from 20 yards out and more. The safeties in Dungy's system are expected to be above-average cover men with the ability to break up passes, but each safety also is expected to have additional specific skills. The strong safeties, while not expected to be great tacklers, are expected to be hard hitters. The hard hitting strong safety protects the middle of the field from being exploited by small, fast wide receivers, and running backs on 'Wheel' routes, by intimidating them to not run their routes in that direction. The free safety in Dungy's system will be called upon to do one of two things in certain situations, either blitz the quarterback, requiring him to have the skills necessary to beat a blocking running back or fullback, or to assume the coverage zone left by a blitzing cornerback.

When executed properly, Dungy's Tampa 2 defense is difficult to beat, which speaks for its longevity that it has fundamentally not changed since first introduced when he came to Tampa in 1996. Teams that have been successful against his defense have managed to run the ball up the middle past the defensive tackles, or throw passes in the seams between the outside linebackers and the cornerbacks (often the most effective receiver against a Tampa 2 defense is a Tight End, since they often line up against this seam).

Other tactics that have shown to be effective on occasion are misdirection plays that take advantage of the defensive speed and rely on the defense 'overrunning' the play (such as the middle linebacker rushing to the line of scrimmage on a play-action pass), or overloading the safeties by having multiple receivers running deep routes, creating more targets in a zone than defenders. Recently, certain teams have also been able to exploit the seam between the cornerbacks and the safeties, when the quarterback can throw a pass to a receiver in that seam faster than the safety can rush up to close it and cover the receiver.

[edit] Coaching tree and philosophy

See also: coaching tree

Like Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, Bill Walsh, Mike Holmgren and Marty Schottenheimer, Dungy is also credited with supporting and fostering the development of defensive-minded coaches, during his tenure with the Bucs. His contributions have had a great effect on the diversity of the league and helped lead to the institution of the Rooney Rule by Steeler's owner Dan Rooney, requiring teams to interview minority coaches.

As of January 23, 2007, four members from Dungy's coaching staff are head coaches of other NFL teams:^[3]

• Herman Edwards for the Kansas City Chiefs (Assistant head coach under Dungy at Tampa Bay)
• Lovie Smith for the Chicago Bears (Linebackers coach under Dungy at Tampa Bay)
• Rod Marinelli for the Detroit Lions (Defensive line coach under Dungy at Tampa Bay)
• Mike Tomlin for the Pittsburgh Steelers (Defensive backs coach under Dungy at Tampa Bay)

Moreover, Mike Shula, the offensive coordinator under Dungy at Tampa, was the head coach of Alabama between 2003 and 2006. Joe Barry, a linebackers coach under Dungy at Tampa Bay, is the defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions.^[4] Leslie Frazier, a defensive backs coach under Dungy at Indianapolis, is the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings.^[5]

Although Dungy is listed as a part of the Marty Schottenheimer coaching tree, the Dungy tree grew from the roots of the Pittsburgh Steelers' dynasty of the 1970s. He was influenced by the defensive schemes learned under Chuck Noll and Bud Carson.^[6] Dungy said that he inherited most of the coaching philosophies from Noll and he is proud be a protégé of Noll.^[7]

Contrary to coaching styles that involve use of profanity and intimidation; getting up at 3 a.m.; living away from the complex; and sacrificing the coaches' families or faith, the coaches under Dungy are essentially teachers^[8] who put faith and family ahead of football and do not belittle their players or scream at them. Also, like Dungy, they remain calm when things go badly. They guide instead of goad, and Lovie Smith found that perhaps the most instructive thing of all.

Smith said,

"We talked about how to do it, being a teacher instead of screaming and yelling, all that stuff." ^[9]

Smith also said,

"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."^[10]

Dungy said,

"I really wanted to show people you can win all kinds of ways. I always coached the way I've wanted to be coached. I know Lovie has done the same thing. For guys to have success where it maybe goes against the grain, against the culture ... I know I probably didn't get a couple of jobs in my career because people could not see my personality or the way I was going to do it ... For your faith to be more important than your job, for your family to be more important than that job ... We all know that's the way it should be, but we're afraid to say that sometimes. Lovie's not afraid to say it and I'm not afraid to say it."^[11]

[edit] Personal

Dungy's tenure in Tampa Bay as the head coach of the Buccaneers brought greater attention to his personal accomplishments outside of sports. Tony Dungy has earned widespread respect both on and off the field due to what many see as strong convictions and high personal standards of ethics and behavior, which affect his behavior as both a coach and as a member of his community. He has been active in many community service organizations in the cities in which he has coached. While in Tampa Bay, Dungy worked as a public speaker for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Athletes in Action.

He began a mentoring program for young people called Mentors for Life, and provided Buccaneers' tickets for the participants. He also supported other charitable programs in the area such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Boys and Girls Club, the Prison Crusade Ministry, foster parenting organizations, and Family First. His community involvement and care continues in Indianapolis where Tony helped launch the Basket of Hope program which aids children at Riley Hospital for Children. He continues to assist Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the Boys and Girls Club in Indianapolis. He also supports the Black Coaches Association National Convention and Indiana Black Expo.

Dungy is a devout Christian and at one point in his coaching career considered leaving football for the prison ministry.^[1] Throughout his career, he has remained involved with community service organizations. On March 20, 2007, Dungy aligned himself with the right-wing religious group, the Indiana Family Institute, and openly denounced gay marriage in the name of family values, hoping to sway an Indiana constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and denying domestic partnership rights to non-married couples. The amendment in question states: "Marriage in Indiana consists only of the union of one man and one woman. This Constitution or any other Indiana law may not be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents of marriage be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups."^[12]

Dungy is married to Lauren Dungy of Pittsburgh^[1] and has two daughters, Tiara and Jade, and three sons, Eric, and Jordan, and James Dungy.

Dungy's 18-year-old son, James, was found unresponsive in his apartment in Lutz, Florida, by his girlfriend on December 22, 2005.^[13] CPR was performed, but he was pronounced dead upon arrival at University Community Hospital. A preliminary coroner's report indicated that James committed suicide.^[14] He had been treated for a prescription drug overdose on October 21 of that year. The following game against the Seattle Seahawks on December 24, 2005 was coached by assistant coach Jim Caldwell.^[15] James's funeral was attended by the entire Colts organization, several former and then-present Buccaneers players and officials, and other NFL players, coaches and officials.

[edit] Trivia

• Dungy is the only NFL player since the AFL-NFL merger 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 Baltimore Colts when both Terry Bradshaw and Mike Kruczek went down with injuries on October 30, 1977. He played safety on defense.

• Dungy also became the sixth man to play in a Super Bowl and be the head coach of a Super Bowl team. He joins Dan Reeves, Sam Wyche, Mike Ditka, Forrest Gregg and Tom Flores. After the win in Super Bowl XLI, Dungy became the third man to win Super Bowls both as a player and a head coach. The other two are Mike Ditka and Tom Flores.

• Dungy is the first NFL head coach to defeat all 32 NFL teams.

• Dungy was the youngest assistant coach at age 25^[16] and the youngest coordinator at age 28 in NFL history.

• Was college roommates with current NBA Detroit Pistons head coach, Flip Saunders.

• Dungy is the second black head coach to advance to the Super Bowl along with Chicago Bears head coach Lovie Smith (Chicago advanced a few hours before Indianapolis). He was the first black head coach to win.

• Though Dungy was the first black head coach to win a Super Bowl, he is the third black head coach to win a pro football championship behind Darren Arbet of the San Jose Sabercats (Arena Football League) who won ArenaBowl XVI in 2002 and Pinball Clemons of the Toronto Argonauts (Canadian Football League) who won the 92nd Grey Cup in 2004.

[edit] References and notes

[edit] External links

• NFL.com - Indianapolis Colts Coaching Staff. Retrieved on December 24, 2005.
• The Official Website of the Indianapolis Colts. Retrieved on December 24, 2005.
• Gale - Free Resources - Black History - Biographies - Tony Dungy. Retrieved on December 24, 2005.
• ESPN.com - NFL -Smith: Faith, family then football. Retrieved on December 24, 2005.
• ESPN.com - NFL -Tony Dungy Amazing Grace. Retrieved on June 18, 2006.
• Dungy’s Destructive Dreams. Retrieved on March 24, 2007.

Preceded by Woody Widenhofer	Pittsburgh Steelers Defensive Coordinators 1984-1988	Succeeded by Rod Rust
Preceded by Sam Wyche	Tampa Bay Buccaneers Head Coaches 1996–2001	Succeeded by Jon Gruden
Preceded by Jim Mora	Indianapolis Colts Head Coaches 2002-	Succeeded by Incumbent
Preceded by Bill Cowher	Super Bowl winning Head Coaches Super Bowl XLI, 2007	Succeeded by Incumbent

Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts Head Coaches
Molesworth • Ewbank • Shula • McCafferty • Sandusky • Schnellenberger • Thomas • Marchibroda • McCormack • Kush • Dowhower • Meyer • Venturi • Marchibroda • Infante • J.E. Mora • Dungy

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Head Coaches
McKay • Bennett • Perkins • Williamson • Wyche • Dungy • Gruden

Current Head Coaches of the National Football League
American Football Conference
East	North	South	West
Jauron (Buffalo)	Billick (Baltimore)	Kubiak (Houston)	Shanahan (Denver)
Cameron (Miami)	Lewis (Cincinnati)	Dungy (Indianapolis)	Edwards (Kansas City)
Belichick (New England)	Crennel (Cleveland)	Del Rio (Jacksonville)	Kiffin (Oakland)
Mangini (NY Jets)	Tomlin (Pittsburgh)	Fisher (Tennessee)	Turner (San Diego)
National Football Conference
East	North	South	West
Phillips (Dallas)	Smith (Chicago)	Petrino (Atlanta)	Whisenhunt (Arizona)
Coughlin (NY Giants)	Marinelli (Detroit)	Fox (Carolina)	Linehan (St. Louis)
Reid (Philadelphia)	McCarthy (Green Bay)	Payton (New Orleans)	Nolan (San Francisco)
Gibbs (Washington)	Childress (Minnesota)	Gruden (Tampa Bay)	Holmgren (Seattle)