A Cold and Snowy Coach Dungy Encounter
One thing you can’t ignore about Tony Dungy is his class. The man is definitely a very classy individual who appears at all times to have his ego in check and his humility on display. This was never more evident than during his emotion-filled farewell press conference where he announced his retirement from the Indianapolis Colts, the NFL and pro football altogether.
Coach Dungy will be sorely missed by the city of Indianapolis as we had him for seven years as a glorious example of winning the right way, an NFL team reaching out to the community, developing players as solid citizens and doing so with a soft-spoken intensity that made you sit up and pay attention.
It’s 7:15am on a bitter cold, wintery January morning, the Sunday before Super Bowl XLI will be won by the Colts in Miami. I am in my local grocery to pick up the NY Times and fresh baked danish rolls. The only customers besides myself are a man with a young girl who’s carefully choosing her pastry. I nod to them and recognize it’s Coach Dungy with his youngest daughter. He says, “It’s a cold morning to be out but she loves to get here early while they’re still hot.”
We walk to the checkout line together and I thank Coach Dungy for all he’s done for Indianapolis and wish him good luck in the (gasp) Super Bowl next week. He smiles and says, “Thank you for supporting our team.”
I had read where the Chicago Bears were already in Miami practicing while Coach Dungy opted to allow the team to spend the weekend at home with their families before traveling to the pre-Super Bowl circus. And here he was in a grocery store with his daughter getting pastries. Not watching film or plotting his offensive strategy for the nth time. Not in a crowded room with all his coaches making last minute play additions. No, Coach Dungy was Dad Dungy that Sunday morning. A happy man with no more important task ahead of him than pleasing his beautiful daughter.
From this time on, I held a special respect for Tony Dungy. More as a man and father, than a mere NFL Super Bowl winning coach. This was a guy who had his priorities straight. A man who walked his walk by shining example all the way to the Hall of Fame fueled by hot pastry with his daughter on a cold January morning.