Tony Dungy hangs up his horseshoes - zeroice's Blog

zeroice's Blog

Tony Dungy hangs up his horseshoes

Posted on January 13, 2009 at 02:54 PM.

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What a career, you will be missed. The Colts will suffer without him. He was a true winner. With the Colts

2008 12-4 Lost in wild-card round *2007 13-3 Lost in divisional round *2006 12-4 Won Super Bowl XLI *2005 14-2 Lost in divisional round 2004 12-4 Lost in divisional round *2003 12-4 Lost in AFC title game 2002 10-6 Lost in wild-card round

With the Bucs

2001 9-7 Lost in wild-card round 2000 10-6 Lost in wild-card round *1999 11-5 Lost in NFC title game 1998 8-8 Missed playoffs 1997 10-6 Lost in divisional round 1996 6-10 Missed playoffs * Won division title

He has spent the past five years debating whether to leave football, each year taking about a week to meet with his family, which now lives in Tampa, Fla.
"I'm going to be a Colt forever," Dungy said, adding that he plans to still spend quite a bit of time in Indianapolis.
Dungy has always listed his priorities as faith, family and football, and returned to coach in 2008 when the Colts opened the new Lucas Oil Stadium only after team owner Jim Irsay agreed to let Dungy use a private jet to commute home.
The decision ends a tenure in Indianapolis during which Dungy led the Colts to the playoffs all seven seasons, winning five division titles and appearing in two AFC title games.
But, his teams were also eliminated from the playoffs four times without winning a game, including the past two seasons after winning the Super Bowl -- prompting some to speculate that Dungy's indecision may have hurt the Colts' focus.
Dungy also spent six seasons in Tampa Bay, rejuvenating a moribund franchise and turning it into a perennial Super Bowl contender in the late 1990s and the early part of this decade. He left Tampa with a career record of 54-42 in the regular season becoming the winningest coach in franchise history there, too, and got the Buccaneers to the 1999 NFC Championship Game.
He's the only coach in NFL history to produce six straight 12-win seasons and 10 consecutive playoff appearances.
Dungy's career, which includes an all-time league-high average of 10.7 regular-season wins, also included tragedy. In December 2005, his son, James, committed suicide while attending school in Tampa. He left the Colts for one game, then received the game ball from his players after they made a goal-line stand to beat Arizona in the season-finale.
The Colts' season ended two weeks later with a shocking loss to eventual Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh.
Dungy always said he intended to retire by the time he turned 50, but hung around longer because he enjoyed the game and the Colts players.
But his family priorities won out this time. His son, Eric, will be a high school senior in the fall, and those close to him thought Dungy wanted to accompany his son on college visits.

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press