Is Canton ready for Tony Dungy?
In
considering the question of Tony
Dungy’s worthiness of making the NFL
Hall of Fame, there are two relevant
questions: How does Coach Dungy
rank among his peers and how does
Coach Dungy rank against those
coaches already enshrined in
Canton. It is our opinion that Tony
Dungy deserves enshrinement based on
the following merits:
1. His excellent coaching
record – At a remarkable 139-69,
Tony’s winning % sits at a lofty
.668. This is 9th best all time (100 games). He
sits behind names like Madden,
Lombardi (as in trophy), Shula and
Halas. He did this as a head coach
of two of the typically worst
franchises in the NFL. In fact, the
combined record of Tampa and
Indianapolis franchises without Tony
is 265 and 314 for a .458 mark. Tony
has led the Colts to 7 playoff
appearances and 7 seasons of 10 wins
or more. Under all other coaches in
Indianapolis, the Colts have a total
of 5 playoff appearances and 2
seasons of 10 wins or more. He has
made the playoffs in 11 of the 13
years he coached. He has won 6
division championships and taken his
team to 3 conference title games. He
also won a Super Bowl.
2. His innovations to the
Cover 2 defense – More than just
posting a great record, Tony also
proved to be an innovator, helping
to tweak the classic cover two to
fit his personnel in Tampa. The end
result was the much copied Tampa 2
in which the MLB drops deeper over
the middle and the front four
provide all the pressure, while
quick, sure tackling LBs hold the
gaps. Tony wasn’t just a manager of
players, but an innovative game
planner who left his mark on the way
football is played.
3. A successful coaching
tree – Tony has produced a very
solid run of coaches. This speaks to
his wider impact on the NFL. The
following men are all Dungy
protégées: Herm Edwards, Lovie
Smith, Rod Marinelli, Jim Caldwell and Mike
Tomlin.
4. Social implications –
This is only fourth on the list.
Tony has earned the Hall on the
strength of his coaching resume.
While the plaques of several men in
Cooperstown mention being
instrumental in Jackie Robinson’s
entrance to MLB, Jackie’s plaque
says nothing about him being the
first black player. He got in on his
own merit as a player. So should
Tony as a coach. That being said, if
anyone thinks his resume still needs
a boost, they should remember that
Tony is the first African-American
coach to win a Super Bowl; his
plight and struggles to get hired in
the mid-90s called attention to the
struggles of African American
coaches to receive a fair look; his
coaching tree which has always had
many black coaches in it, struggled
to get started because of exactly
that fact. Tony’s overall win
totals are suppressed due to the
difficulty he had in attaining a
head coaching position early in his
career. While other coaches were
hired as young assistants, for
racial reasons, Tony was made to
wait.
5. His rank among his peers –
At this stage we arrive at the first
of the critical questions for
enshrinement. In assessing this
question, we compiled a list of
Dungy’s contemporaries who are not
currently in the Hall of Fame.
|
CoY=Coach of the
Year awards (either NFL or
Conference. Totaled per season in
which the award was given)
From the
preceding chart we make the
following observations:
Regular season observations:
-
Dungy has climbed this list strictly on regular season
wins. In part, that is due to
the racial issues we discussed
earlier. In winning percentage,
however, Dungy is at the top.
Dungy and George Siefert have
had very similar careers in many
respects. The main difference
would be that Siefert inherited
one of the all time great NFL
teams in the 49ers of the late
80s. His first Super Bowl was
the second of the back to back
wins the 49ers had. He was
largely taking Bill Walsh’s team
over. Dungy on the other hand,
took over two franchises with a
history of losing. Neither
Tampa nor Indianapolis had made
the playoffs the year before
Dungy took over.
Bill
Belichick, largely considered a
lock for the Hall of Fame and
rightly so, has a regular season
record that is depressed in
large part to an unsuccessful
stint in Cleveland. He was
given a second chance, and made
good on it. One wonders if
Dungy would have gotten a second
chance if he had failed as badly
the first time out. This is not
a knock on Belichick at all. He
deserved another go, and made
good on it. It is merely a
statement on the racial climate
during Dungy’s early years as a
coach.
This
list clearly places Dungy at the
head of the class among his
relative peers. He won the
highest percentage of games and
did so with historically bad
franchises.
Post season observations:
Belichick’s record is ridiculously
good.
Dungy’s nine post season wins is
middle of the pack. His winning
percentage is toward the bottom
of the group.
Shockingly, there are only five
coaches on this list with more
Super Bowl wins than Dungy
(one). Belichick, Siefert,
Johnson, Shanahan, and Parcels.
Winning a second Super Bowl is
extremely difficult.
Overall
assessment of Dungy’s rank among his
peers:
Dungy is
clearly at home among this list of
the best coaches of his generation,
and is one of the stars of it. His
record lags behind Belichick’s 3
Super Bowl wins and is similar to Parcels’ track
record at multiple franchises (took
4 different teams to the playoffs).
His record is essentially identical
to Siefert’s, although earned under
very different circumstances. His
numbers are also much better to than
Holmgren’s, Cowhers, and Andy
Reid’s. Holmgren and Cowher did
bring multiple teams to the Super
Bowl. Dungy’s incredible winning percentage helps
to separate him from his peers,
whose coaching numbers are similar,
though they lack the significant
contributions that Dungy made in
other areas (innovation and race).
6.
His rank among current Hall of Fame
coaches – This now leads us to
the second of the two major
questions-Where would Tony Dungy
stand up against other modern (read:
Super Bowl era) coaches?
Of the
21 coaches currently in the Hall of
Fame, 12 roughly fall during at
least part of the Super Bowl Era.
They are:
Don Shula
Tom Landry
Hank Stram
Weeb Eubanks
Bill Walsh
Bud Grant
Chuck Noll
John Madden
Vince Lombardi
Marv Levy
Joe Gibbs
George
Allen
Of those 12, the following are
clearly a step above the rest:
Shula
(2-3 in SB), Landry (2-3), Walsh
(3-0), Noll (4-0), Lombardi (2-0,
plus 3 NFL titles), Gibbs (3-1)
It takes
3 trips to the Super Bowl just to
make that list (excusing Lombardi
who they named the trophy after).
That leaves the following coaches
left to compare to Tony Dungy:
Hank Stram, Weeb Eubanks, Bud Grant,
John Madden, Marv Levy, George Allen
The following chart serves to
compare these coaches to Dungy.
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Observations:
-
Dungy is in the upper tier of the coaches in terms of career wins. In terms
of winning percentage, he
clearly belongs. -
Most of the men on this list had
other contributions to
football. Weeb Ewbank won
multiple NFL championships and
was head coach of one of the
most important upsets in NFL
history (Super Bowl III). John
Madden had an amazing win
percentage and also made a huge
impact as an announcer and video
game personality. Hank Stram
was a legendary AFL coach and
instrumental in the early days
of the league.
Grant and Levy are on the list
by virtue of taking their teams
to 4 Super Bowls. This enormity
of this accomplishment
overshadows the fact that they
lost all those games.
-
Dungy’s playoff record is right
at home on this list.
Overall
assessment of Dungy’s place among
the Hall of Fame Coaches:
Dungy
clearly belongs. If not for
institutional racism, he might
already be higher on the all time
win list. The additional
accomplishments of innovation, trail
blazing, and trend setting in
coaching style help to differentiate
him from his peers and would make
him a worthy addition to the Hall of
Fame where he would be placed
alongside other men who impacted and
changed football.
It seems clear that Coach Dungy has
established himself among the
greats. If he never returns to football, his place among the immortals of the game is already assured.
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