Who would you say got the better end of this deal?
Not even an unpredictable rain storm or Prince’s running mascara, could keep the Indianapolis Colts from winning the 
Super Bowl on Sunday. The Colts entered the game as the favorites and it was supposed to be a Chicago Bear vaunted defense that was slated to stop them. After the first quarter, the defense became as porous as sponge Bob and Tony Dungy received the lifetime name tag of ” Winner “. Dungy’s career has brought about many barbershop discussions where people go at it about whether he deserves all the accolades for his current coaching job. Believe it or not, there are those who feel that Tony Dungy wasn’t really the catalyst behind the Buccaneers famous Tampa 2 defense. Some give that distinction to defensive coordinator, Monte Kiffin.
While the Super Bowl had fewer story lines of games of the past, the one that media friends seems to have stayed away from is….. What are Malcolm Glazer and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers thinking now? Allow the Big Man to weigh in. They are thinking ” maybe we made a mistake!!” Oh yes…. And if the Glazer family is not thinking this, then they may find themselves and their franchise doomed to mediocrity much longer. Five years after Anthony ” Tony ” Dungy was unceremoniously let go by the Buccaneer franchise, we now have a clear picture of the fallout. When I listen to radio shows and hear so called Buc fans make suggestions that Dungy is not a great coach, I laugh and often wonder if these fans even remember what their team was like in the pre Dungy era. Better yet! How many of them can even name the previous five coaches. Do the usually fair weather fans of Tampa know that the franchise has had only two winning seasons prior to Tony’s arrival on Tampa soil and only two winning seasons in the five years after his departure? During the coaches 6 year tenure he put together five consecutive seasons of .500 or better. Fact is, Tampa’s proud franchise has only 187 wins in its 30 year history. Dungy’s regular season record was 54-42 and of the seven coaches in Tampa’s history he is the only one who can claim a winning record.
Maybe it needs to be pointed out to the ungrateful Tampa Bay fans that of the nine postseason appearances in club history, 4 of them were during Dungy’s tenure, including three straight. The Big Man wants to know, how dare you? How dare you question the greatness of a guy who inherited a ” pure ( P-yow) garbage franchise” that found every way to lose? A club that had double digit losses in 15 of 19 seasons including 12 straight from ‘83-’94, how dare you attempt to paint your best coach in a light that makes it look as if he could never could get it done in Tampa or that he’s really not that good at what he does? As an illustration of how great he was, ask yourselves what the current coach is doing with the players inherited from Dungy. Raymond James stadium was the house that Dungy Built!! It is because of those 6 seasons of striving to better the team in the playoffs why Tampa even has those cushy seats and a club level unmatched in the league. Not only did Tampa Learn how to win under Dungy, an expectation was created because of him.
Tony Dungy’s teams gave sports radio in Tampa, Florida something to finally talk about, he created an expectation to win in a place fans couldn’t hold their heads up when football was mentioned. This is the place where Bo Jackson wouldn’t come to play, the place that shunned two Super Bowl winning QB’s in Doug Williams and Steve Young, the place that John Elway threatened to play baseball if they drafted him, the place who chose Ricky Bell over Tony Dorsett in the 1977 draft, a place so ridiculously lousy when it came to football, Steve Spurrier and the Tampa Bandits were the best show in town at one point. Short term memory should be considered a disease and very contagious, because it seems to have permeated the Tampa community like a deadly plague.
Now begs the question, who got the better deal? With Dungy and the Indianapolis Colts looking prepared to be competitive for the next seven years, the Buccaneer franchise looks like its back to its old ways of losing. Since the Super Bowl victory with John Gruden at the controls, the Bucs are 27-37. The worst decline of a Super Bowl winning team in the history of our game. The best players on this team are still the ones who played for Dungy and the team has not improved in any categories. The Bucs are older, not younger, the Tampa 2 looks extremely porous, they have a mess at quarterback, a defensive line that doesn’t seem to get pressure anymore, and a running game that features a Cadillac who runs more like a Ford Pinto. What ever the reasons are for this demise, you can’t blame Tony Dungy. There are those who for some unGodly reason believe that Dungy wasn’t the driving force behind his recent Super Bowl win. I have heard preposterous claims such as Tom Moore ( Colts offensive coordinator) is the mastermind, or Peyton simply grew up and got better, or the Colts defensive woes proves Tony’s lack of greatness. Please know this…….In the end, it was all Tony Dungy that has the Colts as your Super Bowl champions. Allow me to make the case!! If Tom Moore was such a master mind, why was Dungy hired? Why hasn’t any owners hired Tom Moore as head coach? If it’s just because Peyton grew up, what about this lousy postseason he had where he threw more interceptions than touchdowns–does that sound like growing up to you? The defense Dungy has been tweaking for past five years came of age in their four post season games. I don’t have to tell you, just ask the Chiefs, Ravens, Patriots, and Bears. With Peyton throwing 3 touchdowns and 7 interceptions, what else could it be? oh I get it…..maybe you still think its Tom Moore’s master mind!!
Tony Dungy inherited a 6-10 Colt squad with a Peyton Manning who had thrown 23 interceptions in the previous year. Tom Moore had four years with Peyton Prior to Dungy’s arrival and he threw 81 INT’s in that span. Since Dungy’s arrival, Peyton has cut down down on his mistakes each year, throwing only 58 picks in five years…the fewest by a current starting QB over this span . The Indianapolis Colts haven’t been this consistent since Don Shula coached them in the 1960’s. In fact, from 1978-2001, the colts had 14 losing seasons in 24 years and never more than two consecutive winning seasons. Well, Dungy has put together a streak of 5, bringing his consecutive seasons at .500 or above to 10 in a row. Only the Buccaneers have more losing seasons in the same span. From one losing franchise to another, he’s made them both winners. Tony joins George Halas, Tom Landry, John Madden, Marty Shottenheimer, and Don Shula as the only NFL coaches to ever accomplish the feat. Keep in mind he is the only one to do it during our wacky free agency era.
The Big Man has made his case on this issue, I just hope that Tampa Fans get some help for that memory loss. Even with 30 million in cap room for the upcoming season, the fans need to know that there has been a gross mis evaluation of talent on behalf of the coaching staff, each and every year since 2002, the same mis evaluation apparently made by the Glazers. All the money in Fort Knox won’t help them with this self imposed ass kicking they have been receiving as of late! Yes! They did it to themselves. Advantage Colts!!
–That’s how the BIG Man Sees It
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