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Bucs could use another Tony Dungy to spark culture change

 
Published Aug. 14, 2018|Updated Aug. 15, 2018

TAMPA —  It seems a little odd, but Tony Dungy is just now being installed in the Bucs' Ring of Honor, two years after his bust was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Leave it to his former team.

As if it matters to this man. Dungy is beyond pleased to be going into the ring on a Monday night this September, when the Bucs play Pittsburgh, Dungy's first NFL team, facing off against Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, a bright light on the Dungy coaching tree, one of Dungy's many legacies.

Sure, Jon Gruden went first, last season, when he was still on Monday Night Football, before he scratched his coaching itch and went to Oakland. Dungy has no problem with that.

"And Jon should have gone first," Dungy said after a Tuesday news conference. "When you win a Super Bowl, that's a crowning achievement."

There was no such crown in Dungy's six seasons in Tampa, but he laid the yellow bricks that paved the way to the Super Bowl. Gruden was the closer. Dungy was the master builder, bringing the Bucs up from double-digit nothingness, an achievement that remains more remarkable than his afterword, that Super Bowl win with Indianapolis.

Dungy built something here, and he was the first one to bother doing it while making sure this team mattered in the community as much as the standings.

Culture change. The term was used more than once Tuesday. And it was spot on, especially given current Bucs times, with a suspended quarterback and a season that already looks bleak. Lots of losing, a coaching change, a restart, all on the table. The Bucs could use Tony Dungy about now, or at least the next one.

To Dungy, Gruden was never the competition. Still isn't. Dungy speaks and people listen. Dungy writes and people line up to buy the book. Dungy's voice, in any form, carries far and wide. He's the conscience of football, whether talking about Jameis Winston, or the president vs. NFL players, or just about anything else. Goodness, I miss him.

"For me, and I've talked to players, I've told older players, you can't just retire from football," Dungy said. "You have to have something to retire to. I've retired to some different things. I enjoy what I do with NBC, but I enjoy reading with my wife to second-graders on Tuesdays. I enjoy being with my kids. I've to some things to fulfill me in life. I don't need to scratch the football itch because I've got some other things I'm scratching."

As for Gruden …

"I think he's going to be great," Dungy said. "I think what he's going to have to do is get adjusted to how you coach now. The guys I talk to, still in the NFL, say you can't do this and you can't do that. You can't practice in pads twice in a row, you can't do that. As far as calling the game, knowing what to do, installing things, motivating people, you don't lose that. He's going to be great at that."

Dungy was the picture of serenity Tuesday, even while acknowledging a tiny fact: He was fired by the Bucs, summarily, after the 2001 season.

"I was fired from here, but I was also hired here," Dungy said. "I was hired when I had never been a head coach. Mr. Glazer, Bryan, Joel, Rich McKay, decided I was their man. I'm grateful for that. I'll always be grateful for that."

Dungy brought a message of hope when he talked to Bucs players Tuesday and watched practice. He thinks the Bucs can be a playoff team. He thinks Winston can redeem himself.

"I look at something my dad would always tell me when he would answer that question every time: 'What are you going to do now to make the situation better?' " Dungy said. "I think that's where we are and that's where Jameis is. We could look back and debate why it happened and all the negatives. But it's where we are and what does he have to do to be that leader on and off the field that the Buccaneers need. He's got to figure that out. He's got to mature. …

"Jameis, he's got to be a leader all the time. He's a great leader on the field, he's a great leader in the locker room, and he's a great leader when he's here. Now he's got to take it on his shoulders to lead off the field and away from the building as well. I'm praying he'll do that."

And, when asked, Dungy gently waded into the toxic swamp that is the open battle between President Trump and NFL players who have protested during the national anthem.

"We really have to understand what these athletes are trying to do," Dungy said. "They're not trying to defame the flag. They're not trying to defame the military or first responders. That's not what they're trying to do. These guys see some things going on in their communities and they're trying to make the situation better. You can debate whether they should do that, or when they should do that, but these guys are very, very patriotic. They're doing it because they care."

He agreed that the president might disagree. Loudly.

"He has," Dungy said. "But I think that's what you do when you're trying to figure out solutions. You talk to people, you give them a forum, you find out. If I was the president, one of the first things I'd say if we've got some young men who are very, very powerful figures in the country and they're upset about something. So, let me call them and see if we can come and have a discussion rather than just saying you're doing the wrong thing, they should do this. I think if you're a leader, you try to figure out a solution."

Vote for Tony!

The newest Ring of Honor honoree sees talent on the defensive line and weapons on offense and doesn't think 0-3 without Winston is a given.

"It could happen that way, But they could just as easily be 3-0," Dungy said. "That's the thing players have to do, just block out the noise, focus in on their coaches and their direction and they may surprise some people."

After all these years, he still believes.