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Analysis: Is '07 Dungy's final year?

John Czarnecki
FOXSports.com,

Colts head coach Tony Dungy will turn 52 in October and there is a slight chance this could be his final NFL season.

"There are so many other things I want to do with life, but I wouldn't be coaching right now if I still didn't enjoy it," Dungy told me on Monday.
"When I started (he was the league's youngest assistant at age 25), I told myself I would coach 25 years, thinking that would be long enough," Dungy said. "Well, I'm over that number now. There are so many speaking engagements that I have to turn down because of coaching. I want to be able to visit prisons and spend a lot more time working with kids. I want to do these things when I'm still relatively young."

Dungy, a devout Christian, wants to help others. At the behest of his wife, his family has three adopted children.

"When our kids went off to school, she said the house was too quiet," Dungy said, smiling.

Despite the tragedy of losing his oldest son, James, Dungy seems almost whole once again.

And now that he has finally won a Super Bowl as a coach, his football career is complete. He earned a ring as a defensive back with the Steelers in 1978, and despite this not being his best Colts' team, he and Peyton Manning finally won a title, beating the Bears in Miami last February.

Not that Bucs owner Malcolm Glazer and his sons care right now (they fired him and ran him out of Tampa), but Dungy is the winningest head coach (90-38 record) in the league since 1999 and the first coach to beat all 32 teams.

To improve ticket sales and boost the stadium bottom line, the Glazers spent four draft picks and $8 million to acquire then-Oakland coach Jon Gruden. But Gruden's team really won a championship with Dungy's defense and now there's talk that the Glazers, if the Bucs don't win this season, could make another dramatic coaching hire to make some money.

"I've thought about it," Dungy said. "I guess I would be appealing to them now, now that I've won and still have a home there. But we both know that isn't going to happen."

FULL STORY
FOX Sports on MSN - NFL - Dungy has options for next phase of his life

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Bears always have and always will need a quarterback!! But not a MLB.


10-7-07 Bears 27,Packers 20
12-23-07 Bears 35, Packers 7
Then Brett Favre Retired...

Serrated Shadow

I hope he coaches for a long time..I've always had the upmost respect for him.

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Pro Career: Tony Dungy was named head coach of the club on Jan. 22, 2002. This season marks Dungy's fifth with the Colts and 11th as an NFL head coach.

Dungy became the 35th coach in NFL history to earn 100 career victories (including playoffs) with a 38-20 win at Houston on Oct. 23, 2005. Dungy is only the sixth coach to win 100-plus regular-season games in the first 10 years as a head coach (113, George Seifert; 105, Don Shula; 103, John Madden; 102, Dungy; 101, Joe Gibbs; 101, Mike Ditka).

He is the NFL's winningest head coach from 1999-2005 with a mark of 78-34 (30-18 with Tampa Bay, 48-16 with Colts), and his .638 winning percentage ranks second among active head coaches. He has directed the Colts to 10-6, 12-4, 12-4 and 14-2 records, becoming the only coach in club history to produce 10-plus victories and playoff berths in the first four seasons with the team.

In 2005, Dungy led the Colts to a franchise-record 14 wins and a third consecutive divisional title, the fifth for the club in its 22-year Indianapolis era. Dungy has seven career double-digit victory seasons and stands as the only NFL head coach to defeat all 32 NFL teams.

Dungy held a 54-42 record as head coach with Tampa Bay from 1996-2001, qualifying for the playoffs four times in six seasons. At 25, Dungy was the NFL's youngest assistant coach with Pittsburgh in 1981.

In 1982, he was promoted from defensive assistant to defensive backs coach, before becoming the league's youngest defensive coordinator in 1984 at age 28. He served as defensive backs coach at Kansas City (1989-1991) and as defensive coordinator at Minnesota (1992-95).

Dungy signed with Pittsburgh as a free agent in 1977 and played safety for two seasons. He had 9 interceptions in 30 games for Pittsburgh and played in the club's Super Bowl XIII victory over Dallas. He was traded to San Francisco in 1979.

Career record: 107-66.

__________________
Bears always have and always will need a quarterback!! But not a MLB.


10-7-07 Bears 27,Packers 20
12-23-07 Bears 35, Packers 7
Then Brett Favre Retired...

RoyWilliams

With what happened to his son i could believe it.

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