Dungy: Character Is What Wins Championships
April 26th, 2011
Former Bucs and Colts head coach Father Dungy is the first guy to counsel and help a troubled man.
He also doesn’t hesitate to red flag a college player who might be trouble.
Dungy explained this during an interview with Shaun King today on The King David Show on WQYK-AM 1010.
“Character is what wins championships for you,” said Dungy, who explained that talented players make plays and win games, but teams need the locker room right to win consistently and a be a champion.
“We had a category when I was in Tampa: ‘Do not draft because of character,”‘ Dungy said. “If you have red flags on a player, it ends up saving you a lot in the long run if you don’t draft him.”
Dungy weighed in on Aqib Talib saying that once a player with Talib’s episodes is in the team family, a guy like Talib will get a lot of patience and counseling from the Bucs, but the Bucs are probably assessing now whether Talib is worth the effort.
Joe always thought defense wins championships, along with a good quarterback. But Joe gets Dungy’s point. Long term, a team is much better off with the good guys. There are plenty of them who can play damn good football.
April 26th, 2011 at 1:07 pm
But Dungy only won one championship despite having the best offense in the world.
In fact, with the Bucs, he also had the best defense and still couldn’t get it done, it took a savvy move by Malcom to get a firey guy like Gruden to provide the perfect spark to get the Bucs team over the top.
In saying all that, one has to come to the conclusion that Dungy doesn’t know how to win championships.
April 26th, 2011 at 1:51 pm
I agree with what Dungy is saying, but character concerns are of two kinds. 1) Players with temperamental problems, but strive to be the best.
2) Players that are lazy, not committed at being the best and want to drag others down with them.
The former kind of character issues are forgivable to me and Talib falls under that category IMO. While he is playing or practicing, you can see he is working his butt off, you can see he is competing with his opponents, you can see the fire in him to destroy his opponents.
April 26th, 2011 at 1:55 pm
Especially if his opponent is treating his sister badly.
April 26th, 2011 at 2:04 pm
Ben Rapelisberger
April 26th, 2011 at 2:24 pm
“Joe always thought defense wins championships, along with a good quarterback.”
Helloooo…2000 ravens led by Trent Dilfer. See you don’t need a good QB 😉
Well I’m glad that Warren Sapp’s character was not put on the do not draft list by the Bucs at one time.
April 26th, 2011 at 2:35 pm
Pete I,
There are rumors, that Wyche helped create Sapp’s chacter problems to be known before the draft?!
Also, you are correct, Dilfer wasn’t a good QB! But, luckily for the Ravens, he wasn’t a bad one!
April 26th, 2011 at 3:40 pm
In Dungy’s case being handed maybe the greatest QB of all time as your quarterback is what wins championships.
April 26th, 2011 at 3:47 pm
The fact is character isn’t always what wins championships. Just ask knife wielder Ray Lewis, Crackhead hooker junkie Lawrence Taylor, pervert sexual harraser Brett Favre, Big Ben Rapistberger, or any of the myriad members of the Dallas Cowboy championship teams who frequented the “White House” back in the day. Talent wins championships. Pure and simple.
April 26th, 2011 at 4:08 pm
Exactly Gitar, and one common thing among all the players you mentioned is that they do not bring those issues to work.
April 26th, 2011 at 4:40 pm
What do you call a Dallass Cowboy’s huddle? A drug ring!
Dallass Cowboys – South America’s Team!
April 26th, 2011 at 7:33 pm
Lol Dungy: character didnt finally award you a superbowl ring, Peyton’s arm did.
April 26th, 2011 at 9:32 pm
I think the greatest QB of all time plays for the Bucs, wears #5…. and has a Cape with a Big “S” on it.
April 26th, 2011 at 10:40 pm
Coach Dungy…with your personal family history, maybe you should just concentrate on home.
April 26th, 2011 at 11:34 pm
I listened to the Shawn King Show Today (turned off WDAE and Jim Rome). It was an excellent show! Shawn King is really growing on me, and it was impressive to have both Tony Dungy and the guy from the St Pete Times on his show today.
April 27th, 2011 at 1:55 am
Kevin that’s just wrong man. Dungy has a huge heart, spearheads many charities & programs for the unprivileged, and visits prisons.
Anyone losing a child knows there’s few greater horrors in this world.
April 27th, 2011 at 2:18 am
Yeah, Kevin, that is an awful comment. There is no reason to go there, totally low class on your part.
I’m surprised by all the people criticizing Tony Dungy, as if he was not a good coach. How quickly some of you forget how he helped build this team into a championship caliber team. Granted, he didn’t win one with us, but there are a lot of great coaches that didn’t win a SB. Likewise, there are a lot of great Qb’s that never won a SB. And it is ridiculous to give the credit for his SB win exclusively to Peyton Manning. How many SB’s does Manning have without Dungy as the coach? That is as ignorant as giving Freeman exclusive credit for us winning 10 games this year.
April 27th, 2011 at 4:05 am
It’s definitely a nice idea to say character wins championships. It makes a lot of people feel good. However, it’s just not true. There are over 50 guys on each team, and there are always going to be some low character guys out of that number. That’s just reality. What about Lt with the Giants? Michael Irvin? Big Ben & Santonio Holmes? Jolly from Green Bay just last year? The list goes on and on, and it doesn’t apply to just football, but every sport. A championship team does not need to have a bunch of choir boys.
April 27th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
Yeah, but it is really cool that Tony was able to do it his way, at least one time. I think he would have with the Bucs too, if not for the stupid refs again in 99′. One thing is for sure and that is Dungy can hold his head high wherever he goes, which is a lot more than many head coaches in the league. He definitely walks the walk.