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.
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Not surprisingly Naxi Rick has blocked emails.
I'm happy for the guy, and I think it's great that he's a devout Christian who's not afraid to give voice to his values. I've always liked the guy. I used to watch him play when he was the quarterback at the University of Minnesota. He's earned his success and the right to say what he wants.
This is the same Rick Telender who said a few years ago that he was sick of seeing baseball players point to the sky etc before batting, pitching etc. And specifically moaned about Carlos Zambrano and Sammy Sosa and other spanish ones.
Funny thing about this KKK boy is that Kerry Wood and Mark Prior do as well. Last time I checked neither are hispanic.
And frankly if you played for the Cubs wouldn't you pray as well?
Most of our greatest athletes are devout christians.
I know a few Cubs that have told me that their faith helps them get through the tough times and doubts etc and through the hard work of even getting there entails.
I am remined of something I just read regarding Robert E. Lee on FR thread where Samuel Clemens was quoted as saying, "There is nothing harder to put up with than than the words of a good man."
A perfect example of a person falling through his own a**-hole and hanging himself!
You said it just right. Both of these teams were coached by good men. He is only a petty little intolerant sports guy who is basically jealous of these men for their success using their Christian principles. I think these people don't understand the idea that, no, they are not saying they pray to make a win, but that they pray to give them strength, win or lose, and to hold to their principles to do it. Now, what is wrong with that?
"An editor has expressed a concern that the subject of the article does not satisfy the notability guideline ........ for inclusion on Wikipedia..."
Probably entered himself on Wikipedia, saw the editor's slapdown, and fired off this ridiculous, loathesome column as a desperate attempt to attain the requisite "notability." What a jackass.
This jerk can voice his beliefs in the papers, let see what would happen if someone reported it from God's side, never would be allowed.
Tony Dungy is a class act. He credits God for his success and leads by example. Where can we find 100,000 more like him?
When are sportswriters going to learn to stay away from topics other than sports?
I know it to be true. Perhaps I should have stuck a /sarc tag on there.
It's possible that sports writers feel they have to try to sound serious because their job is to write daily about an aspect of life that has absolutely no significance to anything, so they take after the usual targets.
"I was more than pleased to see that he can speak proper English, and doesn't manage to use 5 ,7,or 11 "you knows" in his sentances."
Man, you have done it now. Don't you know that you are not supposed to tell colored people they are articulate?
Your article about Indianapolis Colts head football coach Tony Dungy is reprehensible. The sheer lack of class and respect for one of the more decent men and role models in America is stunning. You wrote that you are "troubled" by Tony Dungy's "insistence upon making proper coaching not just a matter of good heart but of religious zeal..." I am troubled that you cannot understand how a person's success in his/her chosen field might be inextricably tied to his/her faith and that such a person would publicly acknowledge that. There must be something better for you than writing.
The crazy thing is: BOTH teams had Christian coaches, players, but it wouldn't have mattered whom won (in God's eyes) he would still get the Glory by the journey, and they way it was played, the outcome only highlights the Coach (Dungy)'s faith, he has been a rock-solid Christian for years, even when loosing like the last couple (esp. last year when his son died..).
BTW I am very pleased as both a Christian and a Hoosier that we WON though!
I knew this kind of statement (Author's Rant) would appear eventually with the faith the Coach(es) and player(s) have shown in Superbowl '07! This author seems like an anti-Christian homosexualist and it just goes to reinforce to me that we as conservatives and Christians can not compromise with evil, and homosexuality (though not those whom are afflicted with it) is evil!
Well, it could be worse -- he could have given the credit to the sportswriters for cheering him on.
He is bothered by this, yet people like him don't think twice when someone says that volcanoes or hurricanes or tsunamis are mother nature reacting to our polluting the planet.
No quotes around this in the column:
God, he said, was responsible for the Colts' 29-17 victory against the Bears.
And he quoted Tony plenty.
No quotes around this in Post # 40:
The only problem I had with Dungy's statements was saying the Colts believed in God more than the Bears do.
Because, he did not say either.
Yes, they are scared to death. Scared that they just might be so wrong, and the born-again Christian is so right. They stand there like children with their fingers in their ears and screaming with their eyes shut. Problem is, they have such a hard time deluding themselves when they hear folks talking about the Lordship of our King, Jesus Christ. It would be funny if it wasn't so pitiful
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