Posted on 02/11/2007 7:48:24 AM PST by Chi-townChief
Everybody thinks Indianapolis Colts coach and Super Bowl XLI champion Tony Dungy is a great guy. Including me.
His calm, considerate approach to the violent game of football is a refreshing departure from the manic, brutal skill set of so many other coaches.
Yet there is a part of Dungy's philosophy that troubles me -- and, I believe, many others -- and that is his insistence upon making proper coaching not just a matter of good heart but of religious zeal, even dogma.
God, he said, was responsible for the Colts' 29-17 victory against the Bears.
Indeed, in the relatively brief trophy-presentation ceremony and news conference that followed the Super Bowl victory at Dolphin Stadium in Miami, Dungy, a devoutly conservative Christian, used the word ''Lord,'' ''God'' or ''Christian'' 10 times while referring to the Colts' success.
He made it clear he was more interested in speaking about his Christian values than about his no-huddle offense.
His religious expression even trumped his honor at being the history-setting first African-American coach to win a Super Bowl.
Both he and Bears coach Lovie Smith were not only black coaches, Dungy stated, ''but Christian coaches showing you can win doing it the Lord's way. We're more proud of that.''
It always has seemed peculiar and disconcerting to me that religious beliefs -- mainly fundamentalist Christian ones -- have been so closely aligned with football, especially at the highest levels.
Dungy might believe there is something novel about a Christian coach winning the Super Bowl -- or any major football crown, for that matter -- but it seems more the rule than the exception.
The troubling aspect, of course, is simply that of intolerance.
To wit: Where does the sports teaching end and the proselytizing begin? Where do the religious beliefs of those in authority become standards for those underneath, and when and how does ostracism for those in disagreement kick in?
Would someone like Dungy, for example, be less or more inclined to keep a devout Christian player over, say, a devout Hindu?
We are an overwhelmingly Christian nation. But that is not by design, law or decree, and it seems we sometimes forget this.
Take these post-Super Bowl Dungy statements -- ''The Lord gave me the opportunity,'' ''I think the Lord tests you sometimes to see if you're going to keep the faith,'' ''I think the Lord has really worked on this team,'' ''I wanted to show that you could have Christian principles ... and still be successful,'' ''I'm proud as a Christian coach,'' ''There are a lot of Christian men who can do the job'' -- and substitute the words ''Allah,'' ''Muslim'' or ''Koran'' in appropriate spots and see if your view changes.
Dungy is set to be the honored speaker at the Indiana Family Institute's ''Friends of the Family'' banquet March 20 in Carmel, Ind. There are large Internet posters of him in his Colts coaching garb advertising the event. Tickets cost $75 and will help fund IFI, which is a nonprofit conservative Christian group that recently filed a brief to the 7th Court of Appeals asking that prayer be allowed to start each day on the floor of the Indiana legislature.
IFI is affiliated with Focus on Family, a conservative Christian organization that is gay-repressive and is holding a conference about homosexuality this weekend in Phoenix that will be protested by gay- advocacy groups.
''We will be presenting the truth about homosexuality,'' Focus on Family spokeswoman Melissa Fryrear said in a statement, adding that her group will show gays ''it is possible to walk away from homosexuality.''
It is perhaps ironic that former NBA player John Amaechi just ''came out'' and said he is gay, adding that he didn't think an openly gay player could survive in the pros because of prejudice.
I always have wondered how religion and tolerance bed down.
And I long have wondered if preachers such as Dungy should stick to X's and O's.
• • This might surprise you, but there are now 4,000 wolves in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Once an endangered species that had been hunted nearly to extinction, wolves have been removed from the endangered list in those states.
Having come face to face with a wolf on a dirt road in Michigan's Upper Peninsula in late fall a couple of years ago, I can tell you it is a hair-raising experience.
It's always nice to be in a car with a big windshield.
• • Mike Tyson has checked himself into an inpatient treatment program near Phoenix for ''various addictions'' while awaiting trial on drug charges.
It will be interesting to follow this guy with the nutty face tattoo and the ruined boxing reputation to the very end.
I just think the odds of it finishing happily ever after are so bad that they wouldn't even be taken in Las Vegas.
• • Prince's phallic guitar display at the Super Bowl has faded from memory like purple rain in the Everglades.
Now why was it that Janet Jackson's momentarily exposed nipple shield at the Super Bowl two years ago was so horrifying?
• • Sacramento Kings star Ron Artest recently had his Great Dane, Socks, taken from him by authorities because the animal was starving.
Maybe it's just me, but people who abuse pets seem particularly low on the scale of decency.
I guess it's because the animals are always subservient and essentially powerless, and treating them badly shows, in microcosm, how you would treat unimportant human beings.
I wonder how a wolf pack would treat Artest if the tables were turned.
mailto:rtelander@suntimes.com
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bingo!
"Totally ignorant on Telander's part considering the near-veneration of Cassius Muhammad Ali Clay, Lew Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Alcindor, Chicago's own Muhsin Muhammad, et al."
My thought exactly. If you substitute "allah", "muslim", etc. Then you don't hear a peep out of the likes of Telander. This guy is an idiot.
I'd like Telander to consider that the Christian faith is tolerant, especially compared to other religions. Christians embrace anyone who wants to come into our house of worship. And modern day Christians are not known for sawing off heads or blowing up others, among other atrocities.
Liberals can't stand moral authority, and moral absolutes, and they take it out on Christianity.
It's like I always say. The commies in the media would have loved it if Dungy would have never brought up Jesus or God or anything religious. But he did and guess what? The commies in the left wing propaganda machine dropped him like a hot potato. Just think if Tiger Woods said that he owes all of his success to the Lord Jesus Christ. he would be finished. I'll guarantee that.
The NFL needs more guys like Tony Dungy.
My thoughts exactly. Isn't he essentially telling Dungy how to live his faith? I've never heard Dungy telling another person how to live, beyond perhaps showing by example. Yet this guy feels threatened by that enough to suggest that Christianity's mere visibility is de facto intolerance and should be stomped out. His lack of personal insight is truly stunning.
Dungy's just a Christofascist godbag trying to impose his morality on those who want to f**k without consequence.(Oops,...sorry,I was being channeled through John Edwards blog.)
"Takes a special kind of a-hole to go after Tony Dungy. (I am not a Colts fan)"
Another thing that's enjoyable is the dilemma faced by liberal a-holes, (redundant I know), covering the Super Bowl. They are left with wanting to sing the praises of 2 black coaches, since we all know that anything done by someone who isn't a white male is special. But the problem is both coaches are deeply religious, (Christian), men. Wow, what a conflict for a lib.
I was pulling for Tony Dungy. His public persona is awesome. How he handled the death of his son is something to be admired. Mr. Dungy also tried to acknowledge the race issue, and downplay it at the same time. Something that I appreciated. Finally, his profession of faith at a time when faith is regarded as something that only the weak minded have, (by the liberal MSM), shows strength of character and faith.
Good for Tony Dungy, God Bless him.
When this finally the case, they bring up the color of the skin. Who cares that he and Lovey were AA? They are both really good coaches and they seem like decent men.
This guy seems like a class act. Even though they beat my Pats.
This writer is a petty and jealous pissant. His insecurities glare through his writings. He wishes that he could accomplish something of merit and will attack anyone who does not share his narrow little secular view.
I do not have a dog in this hunt because I am pretty much religiously agnostic. However, I must say that I find Dungy's, and other devout sportsman's humility refreshing among the towering egos in pro sports. If it will take more religion to return honor and decency to pro sports, then I say: Hallelujah, and pass the ball!
This attack by Telander is a hard one to figure because (at least as far as I know) Dungy and the Colts were very gracious winners and Lovie Smith and da Bears appeared gracious in defeat as well. Unless I missed something.
If Dungy had asserted it was a new double, high-low, reverse blocking scheme that had led to success that's OK. But if attributes success to God...well that's wrong.
They were hoping for that soundbite and it never happened.
Modern day liberal blasphemy! In the mind of the intolerant leftist, you can't have religion trumping race.
His religious expression even trumped his honor at being the history-setting first African-American coach to win a Super Bowl.
Both he and Bears coach Lovie Smith were not only black coaches, Dungy stated, ''but Christian coaches showing you can win doing it the Lord's way. We're more proud of that.''
Says to me that Coach Dungy has his priorities exactly right!
Sportswriters are not journalists. They are the normally congenial if somewhat retarded housepets of the hacks who populate newspaper offices.
"Having come face to face with a wolf on a dirt road in Michigan's Upper Peninsula in late fall a couple of years ago, I can tell you it is a hair-raising experience."
Teleander should have prayed.
"It will be interesting to follow this guy (Tyson)with the nutty face tattoo and the ruined boxing reputation to the very end."
Tyson should learn to pray too.
"I wonder how a wolf pack would treat Artest if the tables were turned."
Artest would be praying too.
Telander should pray and thank God that he lives in a free nation where he can continue to write such vacuuous drivel.
I wonder if the nitwit writing this has any idea of the irony of this sentence? Coach Dungy gave witness to his Christian faith...he didn't malign anyone else or any other faith and for that this writer is highly critical and intolerant. And he accuses Dungy of intolerance!
The irony is that the Chicago coach is also a devout Christian, IIRC.
I agree with you. A hatred of religion has more to do with it, I think. These people show their own intolerence by really even caring what methodology Dungy or Lovie Smith use. I thought the Bears showed class at their loss. I think it is time to quit blamimg Grossman for the whole loss, though. On to next year. Hope its a good season for both teams!
The only problem I had with Dungy's statements was saying the Colts believed in God more than the Bears do.
I guess the millions the McCaskeys have given to rebuild and remodel churches all over the world makes them atheists. I thought it was just catholic but while that is the bulk it has gone to all types of churches as well as some synagogues.
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