Tony Dungy: "Faith in Christ will get me through"
Tony Dungy thanked the Indianapolis Colts organization Thursday for their support following the loss of his son. Dungys son James took his own life last week.
"My faith in Christ is whats gotten me through this." Dungy stated in a post-practice interview.
Dungy is a Christian and at one point in his coaching career considered leaving football for the prison ministry. Throughout his career, he has remained involved with community service organizations.
An interesting fact: Dungy is the only NFL player since the merger to both 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.
Dungy was born in Jackson, Michigan to Wilbur and Cleomae Dungy. Dungys parents, both educators, encouraged a focus on academics early on in his and his siblings lives. Dungy attended Parkside High School, where he played the guard position on the basketball team and the quarterback position on the football team.
College Football
Dungy was recruited by University of Minnesota coach Cal Stoll, and played his entire college career for the Golden Gophers from 1973 to 1976. He entered the starting lineup as a quarterback during his freshman year, and in four years, finished as Minnesotas 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 Minnesotas Most Valuable Player award twice.
National Football League
Following college, Dungy entered the National Football League as a free agent playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he played as a backup safety during Pittsburghs Steel Curtain dynasty. After defeating the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XIII, 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.
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.
Assistant coaching positions
He was hired as an assistant coach by Chuck Noll, his former coach, in 1981. In 1982, he was named defensive backfield coach, and was promoted in 1984 to defensive coordinator. His defenses achieved success, and he was often projected to become the first African American head coach. 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, Dungys defense was ranked first in the NFL.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Although he was not the first African American to do so, Dungy finally achieved his dream when he was hired as head coach to reform the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team well-known for its lack of success, in 1995. In 1997, the Buccaneers finished second in the NFC Central division, Tampa Bays first winning season since 1982, and defeated the Detroit Lions in its first playoff game, losing its next game to the defending champion Green Bay Packers.
Dungys 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 out of a 4 lineman, 3 linebacker, 4 defensive back formation. 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. The core personnel to his defensive design are fast linemen who can quickly rush and pressure the quarterback without the aid of a blitz, linebackers who can quickly read a play and either drop into coverage or rush to the line of scrimmage to stop a run, and fast defensive backs that can quickly run to a receiver targeted for a pass and reach them before the ball, in an attempt to intercept or deflect the pass. Finding weaknesses in Dungys defense is exceptionally difficult, but teams that can skillfully run the ball up the middle through the linemen, pass the ball on the underneath seam in front of the linebackers, or along the seam between the linebackers and cornerbacks, have managed to be successful against his style.
Under Dungys watch, the Buccaneers went to the playoffs three times and won its division in 1999, but Dungy was fired by the team in 2001 on account of the clubs repeated losses in the playoffs " most notably, two lopsided defeats (in 2000 and 2001) to the Philadelphia Eagles, and because it was determined by the teams 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 clubs lone Super Bowl appearance and victory.
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 "Cover 2" defense immediately and ever since has set about re-tooling the Colts defense to his liking. Since joining the Colts, Dungy has left the high-power offense previously installed there by Jim Mora, in both playing style and in personnel, virtually unchanged. Dungy would become re-united with Tom Moore, who was retained as offensive coordinator. Moore was the offensive coordinator when Dungy was a college player at Minnesota.
Since his arrival in Indianapolis, Dungy had struggled to fix the Colts defense, and has 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 (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 offseason, signing five-year defensive tackle Corey Simon. Widely expected to be a Superbowl contender, the Colts won their first 13 games, prompting much speculation about the possibility of the Colts becoming the NFLs 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 26-17.
From:
http://www.juiceenewsdaily.com/index...et-me-through/ 
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