Colts Coach Dungy Announces Retirement

After a 31 year NFL career with Superbowl victories both as a player (with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1979) and as a coach (with the Colts in 2007), Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy announced his retirement on Monday.  He’ll leave the game not only as a highly successful head coach, but one of the most admired and respected men to have ever walked an NFL sideline.
The announcement came after his seventh season as the Colts’ head coach, during which his Indianapolis teams posted a .759 winning percentage—that ties him with former Oakland Raiders’ coach John Madden for the #2 all time highest winning percentage with one team just a few percentage points behind former 49ers coach George Siefert (.766).  Much was made over Dungy’s 2007 Superbowl win with the Colts, which made him the first African-American to ever win pro football’s championship game but he minimized the significance of race both in the victory and how he conducted his business.  Though Dungy had trouble holding back tears during his retirement announcement he suggested that others shed none for him:
"We just felt this was the right time. Don't shed any tears for me. I got to live a dream most people don't get to live."
Dungy suggested that the timing was prompted by a desire to spend more time at home and to involve himself to a greater extent in charitable work:
"I think I've got a responsibility to be home a little bit more, be available to my family a little bit more and do some things to help make our country better. I don't know what that is right now, but we'll see."
Dungy has been active with prison ministries and other organizations working with young black men and he suggested that he’d like to continue with that work:
"Where my heart is, is really with our young men right now. We have so many guys that didn't grow up like me, didn't have their dad there and that's something I'm very, very interested in."
A propos of the near universal respect and admiration that Dungy has engendered, comments of praise from his peers within the NFL community were in abundance.  New England Patriots’ coach Bill Belichick offered this tribute:
"People often say that teams reflect their head coach, and that can be said of Tony Dungy's teams, which are consistent winners every single year. Tony has been such a fixture in this league that his absence will take some getting used to."
Herm Edwards was a former assistant under Dungy, and praised his former boss for the strength he showed in the aftermath of his son’s suicide in 2006:
"His biggest legacy will be all the people around the country who he's inspired to be better and to deal with some of life's tragedies in a manner that gives people a lot of strength. What he went through with his son and how he handled it, was something that says a lot about Tony, his faith and what he stands for."
Usually team owners are happy to see head coaches go, but a tearful Colts’ owner Jim Irsay was an obvious exception:
"I knew this day would come some time, it always does in life. It's been an incredible journey, and as an owner, I think, you dream of having the kind of relationship with a head coach that I've had with Tony."
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell effectively summed up Dungy’s impact on the league:
"Tony Dungy taught us all how to handle triumph and tragedy with dignity and grace. Although we will miss him, Tony is a great man and his impact will be part of the NFL forever."