Tony Dungy Quotes

#1. But I know I have a son who doesn't listen to anything I say and if he hears the same thing from someone else, sometimes it has a little more impact.

Tony Dungy

#2. When Jim Irsay called me five years ago, he told me, 'I want you to be our coach and help us win the Super Bowl.' He told me, 'We are going win it the right way. We are going to win it with great guys; win it with class and dignity. We are going to win it in a way that will make Indianapolis proud.'

Tony Dungy

#3. I wouldn't have taken him. Not because I don't believe Michael Sam should have a chance to play, but I wouldn't want to deal with all of it. [ ... ] It's not going to be totally smooth things will happen.

Tony Dungy

#4. I learned from Chuck Noll in Pittsburgh that speed and explosiveness on defense is the way to build a team. Both are difficult for your opponent to assimilate in practice and then in games it is even harder to match.

Tony Dungy

#5. It's the journey that matters. Learning is more important than the test. Practice well, and the games will take care of themselves.

Tony Dungy

#6. It's definitely harder being a dad than a coach.

Tony Dungy

#7. Don't worry about your platform; focus on your impact.

Tony Dungy

#8. Courage is the ability to do the right thing, all the time, no matter how painful or uncomfortable it might be.

Tony Dungy

#9. Coach Noll had always told me, Being stubborn is a virtue when you're right; it's only a character flaw when you're wrong.

Tony Dungy

#10. I know that not everybody gets to coach an NFL team, and I want to do that as well as I can all the time. That's my motivation. I want to help my players to be as good as they can be.

Tony Dungy

#11. My parents had a strong impact on who I am today. My mother and dad both encouraged us to think about the long term - where you wanted to be - to think about education, to think about what is right and what is wrong, and to do things that will help you in the long run.

Tony Dungy

#12. How you use the opportunities your given to affect the world around you will determine the legacy you leave behind.

Tony Dungy

#13. I realized that I needed to be more like the shepherd than the hired hand in protecting my team.

Tony Dungy

#14. We often can't see what God is doing in our lives, but God sees the whole picture and His plan for us clearly.

Tony Dungy

#15. You may not win the Super Bowl. Your kids may not go on to be doctors and lawyers and everything may not go perfectly. That doesn't mean it was a bad plan or the wrong thing. It's just like a football season. Everything's not going to go perfect.

Tony Dungy

#16. If I can't get the captains to respond appropriately and show the leadership I expect, how is anyone else going to respond?

Tony Dungy

#17. There are two schools of thought. You can be basic and spend all your time on what your opponents are going to do. Or, you can be very multiple and complex, put a lot of doubt in your opponents' minds and create problems for them with the volume of things you do.

Tony Dungy

#18. Don't shed any tears for me. I got to live a dream most people don't get to live.

Tony Dungy

#19. So, when it comes to effective leadership, it's not about you and what makes you comfortable or helps you get ahead. It's about other people. It's about serving God by serving others. That's the mind-set of the mentor leader.

Tony Dungy

#20. The secret to success is good leadership, and good leadership is all about making the lives of your team members or workers better.

Tony Dungy

#21. If you're just saying, hey, I'm doing this. I'm working to make money. I'm working to increase my status. If that's all there is, I think you will find out that it's meaningless.

Tony Dungy

#22. Stubbornness is a virtue if you are right.

Tony Dungy

#23. When I was young, I didn't like to read. I would have much rather been outside doing something than been inside reading about it.

Tony Dungy

#24. I guess I'm flattered that people think I can help get things done.

Tony Dungy

#25. There are weaknesses that you have to understand and it takes a lot of discipline for the players to be able to play it effectively and have confidence in what they're doing.

Tony Dungy

#26. I think I can always look back and say my mom and dad would have done this or suggested that in a particular situation. I just really feel blessed to have had them as parents.

Tony Dungy

#27. Character is the glue that bonds solid and meaningful relationships

Tony Dungy

#28. If someone needs help, I can offer advice. I'm not always right and people don't always listen.

Tony Dungy

#29. Anyone who's a parent dreads that call in the middle of the night. I have four grown children and I still dread it.

Tony Dungy

#30. That's the difference between the NCAA and the NFL right now. They've got to step up and say, 'We're going to do the right thing. We're going to hire qualified people. We're going to hire the best man for the job regardless of what boosters or anyone else has to say.'

Tony Dungy

#31. We've got guys who aren't wrapping guys up ... No matter how hard you hit them, you've still got to wrap them up.

Tony Dungy

#32. Pain prompts us to change behavior that is destructive to ourselves or to others. Pain can be a highly effective instructor.

Tony Dungy

#33. Everything's not going to go perfect. You're going to have some losses that you're going to have to bounce back from and some things that are a little unforeseen that you're going to have to deal with.

Tony Dungy

#34. Change isn't always bad; we should always be learning and improving. But the change I was seeing involved principles, not procedures.

Tony Dungy

#35. Integrity is what you do when no one is watching; its doing the right thing all the time, even when it may work to your disadvantage.

Tony Dungy

#36. Winning would create greater potential for change than talk alone.

Tony Dungy

#37. I don't have the strength or wisdom to get through a single day without guidance and grace from God.

Tony Dungy

#38. I just don't think you pass on a great quarterback if you have the opportunity. If need be, you can trade it away.

Tony Dungy

#39. If you're a leader, people's lives should be better because of the influence you've had along the way.

Tony Dungy

#40. But there's no substitute for a full-time dad. Dads who are fully engaged with their kids overwhelmingly tend to produce children who believe in themselves and live full lives.

Tony Dungy

#41. What will people remember us for? Are other people's lives better because we lived? Did we make a difference? Did we use to the fullest the gifts and abilities God gave us? Did we give our best effort, and did we do it for the right reasons?

Tony Dungy

#42. A good leader gets people to follow him because they want to, not because he makes them.

Tony Dungy

#43. I was able to look at football as something that God was allowing me to do, not something that should define me. I couldn't take my identity from this sport.

Tony Dungy

#44. First, there is no typical grief cycle, and second, it's not something I went through. I'm still grieving.

Tony Dungy

#45. The further I get away from coaching, the more I know I made the right decision. You almost forget how wonderful family life is.

Tony Dungy

#46. What's important is not the accolades and memories of success but the way you respond when opportunities are denied.

Tony Dungy

#47. DON'T FEAR FAILURE. Fear being successful at things that don't matter

Tony Dungy

#48. If we have trouble hearing Him, He will faithfully work in our lives until we are pointed in the direction He wants us to go.

Tony Dungy

#49. I needed to do my current job well, keep preparing, and wait on God's timing. I needed to trust His leadership rather than try to force an outcome I wanted.

Tony Dungy

#50. The fundamental keys to the culture of any organization can only be achieved when everyone is on the same page.

Tony Dungy

#51. You'll not find the life God intended for you in relationships seeking immediate and personal gratification - even the

Tony Dungy

#52. Be intentional and choose to envision a life of significance, possibility, and impact.

Tony Dungy

#53. For some reason the football coach of a major college program is seen as one of the leaders of the campus. And some way we have to let our young people know that that leader can look like anyone.

Tony Dungy

#54. When things get difficult it can be easy to complain. How you respond makes all the difference

Tony Dungy

#55. The game has changed since the '70s as more coaches have looked at ways to make it tougher on defenses. But I'm glad my career turned out the way it did - I would have never gotten a chance to learn the defensive side of the ball.

Tony Dungy

#56. People look at me and see a calm, cool guy on the sidelines and I want them to know that my Christian faith affects my coaching and everything I do.

Tony Dungy

#57. When I was younger I only read sports books. I loved the biographies that told how athletes developed. When I got into coaching, I did start to read more instructional books, but I was always more interested in the people behind the ideas.

Tony Dungy

#58. We have a whole generation of men who don't understand how much they mean to their kids.

Tony Dungy

#59. He's probably the hardest-working guy I've been around who has great ability. Overachievers work hard because they have to. Peyton has rare talent, but chooses to push himself like he doesn't.

Tony Dungy

#60. I've always talked to players about perception and reality. I don't worry about perception. There may be some of that, that people want to attach to a good name, but the reality is that some good things can happen.

Tony Dungy

#61. I am a firm believer that the Lord sometimes has to short-circuit even our best plans for our benefit.

Tony Dungy

#62. What did you have the potential to do? And if you came close to that, if you maximized that, then you were a success in God's eyes. So many of us do things that the world would say is successful, but we have so much more potential.

Tony Dungy

#63. You have gifts, abilities, and dreams no one else has.

Tony Dungy

#64. At some point in life's journey, professionally and personally, we have to be able to trust our preparation.

Tony Dungy

#65. When it's over, it's over is part of football's greatest appeal to me. When a game ends, win or lose, it's time to prepare for the next one.

Tony Dungy

#66. To bring myself back to a perspective of all that I am in Christ - not according to the world. I need it to remind myself that the world doesn't define me. I am defined by my relationship with Jesus Christ.

Tony Dungy

#67. Your life has been intentionally designed by God to have a uniquely significant and eternal impact on the world around you.

Tony Dungy

#68. I just think winners win. And guys who won all the way through high school and college, the best player at every level, they have a way of making things happen and winning games.

Tony Dungy

#69. And if God has given you a lot of ability, I believe you should be held to a higher level of expectation.

Tony Dungy

#70. It's about the journey
mine and yours
and the lives we can touch, the legacy we can leave, and the world we can change for the better.

Tony Dungy

#71. We only wanted to pay significant sums to keep truly special players.

Tony Dungy

#72. Remember that mentor leadership is all about serving. Jesus said, "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45).

Tony Dungy

#73. Success is uncommon and not to be enjoyed by the common man. I'm looking for uncommon people because we want to be successful, not average.

Tony Dungy

#74. We talked about some of our experiences, focusing, hanging together down the stretch, important games. It's not necessarily who has the most talent but what team sticks together and executes their fundamentals the best.

Tony Dungy

#75. Take a moment to think about your answer to this question: Am I prepared to have great success and not get any credit for it?

Tony Dungy

#76. I found that while life drags on when you're losing, it marches on when you're winning.

Tony Dungy

#77. The truth is that most people have a better chance to be uncommon by effort than by natural gifts. Anyone could give that effort in his or her chosen endeavor, but the typical person doesn't, choosing to do only enough to get by.

Tony Dungy

#78. False modesty is an attempt to tear yourself down. True humility focuses more on build up others.

Tony Dungy

#79. Long-term success requires faith-faith that your efforts to plan and execute the process will lead to the desired outcome.

Tony Dungy

#80. Engage, educate, equip, encourage, empower, energize, and elevate. Those are the methods for maximizing the potential of any individual, team, organization, or institution for ultimate success and significance. Those are the methods of a mentor leader.

Tony Dungy

#81. It's okay to wander.

Tony Dungy

#82. I would want America to know our kids need us. Spend as much time with your kids as you can. Enjoy them. Be with them. Hug your children; You never know when it will be the last time.

Tony Dungy

#83. Most of the books I remember from my childhood were Dr. Seuss-type books. They were fun to read, but there wasn't a real story behind them.

Tony Dungy

#84. People have to understand how important it is for kids to be nurtured by their mom and dad and get the great role modeling when they are young.

Tony Dungy

#85. Gay marriage and who should be on a football team have nothing to do with each other.

Tony Dungy

#86. Everybody needs encouragement, even when things are going well.

Tony Dungy

#87. I got put into leadership roles very early in life from fifth grade, sixth grade. I always ended up being the quarterback or the leader of the sports teams, and it's kind of benefiting me now.

Tony Dungy

#88. I was not asked whether I would have a problem having Michael Sam on my team. I would not.

Tony Dungy

#89. There are certain bridges that are not worth crossing, no matter what others think. Loyalty and relationships are important.

Tony Dungy

#90. We are all important, but we are not indispensable.

Tony Dungy

#91. Our goal was to win, to win a Super Bowl, but also to win in the right way, to be role models to our community, to represent Indianapolis, the state of Indiana and the National Football League.

Tony Dungy

#92. If we lose sight of people, we lose sight of the very purpose of leadership.

Tony Dungy

#93. I always liked to be fairly simple because you could get more players ready to play quickly. If you lose players to free agency, injuries, etc., it is easier to get young players ready to play in a less complex system.

Tony Dungy

#94. As big a deal as the Super Bowl is, it's not the most important thing going on in the planet.

Tony Dungy

#95. We are all role models to someone in this world, and we can all have an impact - for good.

Tony Dungy

#96. When you're in a situation, you can complain about it, you can feel sorry for yourself, you can do a lot of things. But how are you gonna make the situation better?

Tony Dungy

#97. I think I've got a responsibility to be home a little bit more, be available to my family a little bit more and do some things to help make our country better. I don't know what that is right now, but we'll see.

Tony Dungy

#98. I had 10 to 12 close buddies who I played ball with all the way from elementary to high school. That is where I learned to compete.

Tony Dungy

#99. When I was15 years old, I couldn't look at the NFL and look on TV and say, 'Boy, there's a head coach, African American. That's something I'd like to do.'

Tony Dungy

#100. It's just really making sure I am doing the best job I can do as a dad. I do think that is my No. 1 job.

Tony Dungy