Tony Dungy has officially retired from the NFL. After 30 years in the National Football League -- three as a player, 14 as an assistant coach, and 13 as a head coach -- he is leaving behind a career during which he took his teams to the playoffs for 10 consecutive years, had the highest-scoring team in the NFL the last six years in a row, and won the Super Bowl both as a player and a coach.
But even though he's walking away from pro football, he is not walking away from the world of coaching; in Tony Dungy's life, once a coach, always a coach.
On the most personal "coaching" level, Tony will now be able to dedicate more time to his wife, Lauren, and their five children, where his discipline, generosity and ability to lead by example will inspire the next generation of Dungys.
During the years I have been privileged to know Tony through his work with our national nonprofit organization, Family First, and our fatherhood program, All Pro Dad, I have seen a man whose own character cannot be questioned. I first met Tony in his office when he was head Executive Coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. During that meeting to discuss launching All Pro Dad, Tony took a phone call and said he would have to cut our meeting short to pick up his son from school. Right then I knew that Tony Dungy was truly an All Pro Dad.
Of course, Tony will tell you that he is far from perfect, that he must work hard to cultivate the qualities for which he is known and admired. That in itself speaks to another trait so abundant in Tony -- humility. Like his father, Wilbur, a college professor who never even told his son about his time as part of the famed World War II Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American U.S. military pilots, Tony would rather praise others than talk about his own accomplishments. These accomplishments and accolades include receiving the President's Volunteer Service Award, being named as one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the World," and being chosen for the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation.
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