In Defense Of Tony Dungy

When I first heard that Coach Dungy had spoken out against Rex Ryan's F bombs on HBO's "Hard Knocks" I immediately went to find the link to listen to the audio myself. After listening to it and recognizing that it was in response to questions asked at the end of a segment where he was on the Dan Patrick's radio show to promote his new book The Mentor Leader: Secrets to Building People & Teams That Win Consistently, I didn't think it was that big of a deal at all. I mean Tony is a guy that everybody knows is heavily involved in different ministries and goes out of his way to talk about his Christian faith and doesn't cuss himself. Was it really THAT surprising that he wasn't happy about hearing that Ryan was dropping F bombs left and right?

So I was as surprised as anybody when it became this huge media story and now Ryan is evidently all upset and hurt that Coach Dungy "judged" him and his Buddy Ryan, his father, felt compelled to respond as well.

Well in all of this very few people have focused on what exactly it was Coach Dungy said and instead focused on writeups of what he said which gave the impression that he was on some kind of crusade against Rex Ryan and cussing when Tony himself admitted that he has been around cussing, it was just that all those F bombs are not something he wants to be around constantly.

Therefore I took it upon myself to call into my guy Bomani Jones' satellite radio show and defend Coach Dungy a bit. If you want to hear the audio just click this link.

This Seems Awfully Familiar

Two games left in an awful Bucs season and all of a sudden here comes news that the Glazers have already sat down with Bill Cowher to gauge interest in coaching the Bucs next year. Sounds eerily like the reports with two games to go that the Glazers were already in talks to bring in Bill Parcells to coach the team when Tony Dungy was still here trying to get us into the playoffs. A lot of people don't realize that the Glazers really had talked to Parcells who was all set to come but screwed up when he talked to some of his former assistants who were employed by other teams without asking those teams permission. It was all pretty much swept under the rug but there were fines handed down behind it and it was pretty much the only reason Parcells didn't end up in Tampa. So you can probably bet your house that Bill Cowher will be the Bucs head coach next year if he wants the job and doesn't screw up.

Now at the moment I won't go into whether it would be a good move or a bad move or how Bill Cowher coaching the team would affect the organization, but I will talk about how sleazy it is in my opinion for the Glazers to pull this kind of bullshit yet again during the season with just 2 games left. Its not so much that they talked to Cowher, most folks are pretty sure they have talked to several head coaching candidates by now. But allowing the information to get out now, when they still have a head coach who finally has the team moving in some what of a positive direction is not the way owners should do business. And make no mistake about it, this information was leaked on purpose. It didn't just pop up out of thin air.

If they want to fire Raheem Morris after the season, fine that is their prerogative. And he certainly has had a terrible season thus far. But you don't have to try to humiliate the guy with two games left just to try to make it look like you are making a splash move. Just imagine what is going on with the players who I am sure will hear about this before the game today. Imagine what the assistant coaches are thinking heading into a game in New Orleans against one of the best teams in the NFL. And then think about the questions Coach Morris will have to answer about Cowher after the game and for a full week next week. Its bullshit. There is no other way to say it than that. There is a right way and a wrong way to do business, and this is decidedly the wrong way. I would have hoped that they would have learned after the debacle with Coach Dungy but evidently I was wrong. It will be interesting to see what happens though should Cowher turn them down.

It is what it is.

Man Up Raheem

I happened to be checking out Pro Football Talk and there was a story there about Byron Leftwich keeping his captain status. I figured that was a good look and I wanted to read the story. Well the post actually had two parts. The first part did indeed talk about Leftwich continuing to hold the title of captain. But in the second part it seems that Coach Raheem Morris took a shot at Coach Tony Dungy.

Morris also addressed the general struggles that the team has faced through three games, using some questionable reasoning.

"[W]hen [Tony] Dungy was here, they were starting slow every year," Morris said. "They would be 0-3, 0-1 or 0-4 and they would run off six or seven wins, take their team to the playoffs, go 9-7, and lose to the Eagles. That was just the nature of the beast around here."
Ugh. If our eyes aren't deceiving us, Morris seems to be saying that it's OK for the 2009 Bucs to be 0-3 because the Buccaneers under Dungy typically dug a hole and then crawled out of it, only to peter out in the first round of the playoffs.

That's not how we remember it. Because that's not how it went.

In 1997, the Bucs started off 5-0, finished 10-6, won a playoff game over the Lions, and lost in the divisional round to the Packers.

In 1999, the Bucs started 2-1, went 11-5, won the NFC Central, and nearly beat the supposedly unbeatable Rams for a berth in Super Bowl XXXIV.

In 2000, the Bucs started 3-0, a far cry from 0-2.

In 2001, the Bucs started 2-1, finished 9-7, and lost to the Eagles in the playoffs.

Indeed, the only year the Bucs went 9-7 and lost to the Eagles in the playoffs was 2001, Dungy's last year with the team.

The bigger problem is that Morris seems to think that the 2009 Bucs are simply going to wake up from an 0-3 nightmare and reel off a bunch of wins simply because he incorrectly recalls that losing early and winning late was the modis operandi during a completely different era in the franchise's existence.

Now being as that I was a part of every one of the six years that Coach Dungy coached here in Tampa, I feel more than qualified to speak on this. And what Raheem Morris said was damned disrespectful not only to Coach Dungy, but to all of the guys who helped to set a new standard of excellence with the Buccaneers during those years. Instead of focusing on his own shortcomings he seems to feel like if he convinces everyone that Tampa's teams just always start slow then they will give him a pass. Well not only is he wrong on his history but really who the hell wants to explain away their failure by implying its "just how things are done down here"?

I have to wonder why Morris was so willing to take an erroneous shot at Coach Dungy in the first place. He hasn't coached this team since 2001, so why, if Raheem wanted to take a shot, didn't he do so at Coach Gruden whose tenure at least might have been relevant to the conversation. Indeed in 2002, the year the Bucs won the Superbowl, Gruden's Bucs DID start off the season slow then went on a late season run which they carried over into the playoffs. I will leave it up to people smarter than me to figure out the man's logic.

Here is what I do know however, Coach Dungy is owed a public apology from Coach Morris for what he said and to a certain extent so are those of us who turned the Bucs from a laughingstock to a powerhouse during Coach Dungy's tenure. I hear that Coach Morris is big on accountability, how he handles his own erroneous statement will say a lot about whether he practices what he preaches.

Get Your Popcorn Ready

From Tampabay.com

Since walking away from the NFL sidelines, Tony Dungy has -- among other endeavors --counseled Michael Vick, landed a football commentator's gig on NBC and caught a bunch of his son's seven-on-seven games for Plant High.

Now, Dungy is set to star in what could be a memorable preseason film session for many local prep teams.

On Aug. 25, four bay theaters (and three others just outside the area) will show Tony Dungy's Red Zone '09, a one-night-only film featuring Dungy, pro football hall-of-famer Michael Irvin, hall-of-famer-to-be Peyton Manning and USC coach Pete Carroll, among others.

According to a promotional release, the film "will engage and motivate high school football players as well as give them unprecedented access to professional coaches and players who will present inside tips on football, the keys to winning at any position, and discuss the importance of hard work, team building, conditioning, skills development and mental toughness."

This strikes me as a wonderful idea and I hope as many families in the Tampa Bay area go out to see this film session as possible. Coach Dungy is a man I truly admire and it always seemed like the lessons he taught were applicable to life in general. I certainly will make every effort to be in attendance.

Random NFL Observations

My preseason pick to win it all is the New England Patriots. I personally feel like they had the best off season of any team. They picked up Fred Taylor, Joey Galloway, and Shawn Springs in free agency. Another guy they picked up, Tight End Chris Baker, will also open some eyes I believe. I also think losing Mike Vrabel to the Chiefs will also work out in their favor as it allows Adalius Thomas to be more of the pass rusher that he was back in Baltimore.

For some odd reason though, I don't hear a lot of people pushing the Patriots as potential champions and I really can't understand why. I guess there is the chance that Tom Brady doesn't come back to form but if he does you are talking about an offense that is probably better than the one that set all the records two years ago. With Taylor, Sammy Morris, Laurence Maroney, and Kevin Faulk on the roster, they have a stable of backs that could measure up to almost any other team in the league.

Adding a bonafide wide receiver who still is one of the fastest in the league in Galloway to the tandem of Randy Moss and Wes Welker should almost be illegal. Whether they are saying it or not there are D Coordinators scratching their head right now trying to figure out how they are going to double Moss without allowing Galloway to burn them deep every single time.

On defense the corners are upgraded from a year ago with Springs and another free agent pick up in Leigh Bodden. And with another year under his belt you can expect fellow Tennessee alumni, Jerod Mayo, to be even more of a beast in the middle this year. Look for Richard Seymour to step his game up too back to an All Pro level now that he has had over a year for his knee to heal.

Lets keep in mind that last year even with losing Brady this team won 11 games and barely missed the playoffs. If they get 11 wins in an injury riddled off year, how many do you think they will get if they are firing on all cylinders?

Im just sayin.

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On another topic let me just say that people need to take a deep breath or two over Mike Vick's reinstatement. He will probably be signed by some team before the season begins but its his HIGHLY unlikely that he plays at all this year. For one he will probably push to stay at quarterback and getting into camp late if at all and trying to learn a playbook is going ot be a very difficult thing to accomplish.

For two he has been locked up and away from the game for basically two years now. Although I was a Vick fan back then, it is still true that his accuracy was a problem back when he was practicing everyday. The kind of rust he has accumulated over these past couple of years will be hard to knock off in one season.

And third and maybe most important is that Vick will probably be signed by a team that is established. I don't think a team that is searching for itself will take a chance on him. Its much more likely that a team like the Steelers or the Colts who have the luxury of having a player on their roster who isn't likely to play, will sign him in the hopes that he learns the playbook this year and is ready to compete for a job next season. It just doesn't make sense to bring him in to a team where he is expected to be the man after all he has been through.

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On the Tampa Bay Buccaneers let me say that it will be ironic to say the least if Raheem Morris indeed takes the team back to the basics of running the ball and playing tough hard nosed defense and the team has success and the fans end up jumping all over his bandwagon. Its ironic because they ran Tony Dungy out of town for taking the team in that direction 8 years ago after he led the team to 5 none losing seasons in 6 years. Go figure.