Dungy Decides to Stay, Proving No News is Good News
Tony Dungy never got around to answering the question that prompted the mystery of whether he’d be back as Indianapolis Colts coach.
Why did his family move back to Tampa, Fla.?
"We have a lot of things going on in our family that won’t be public, don’t need to be public, and don’t need to be anybody else’s business," Dungy said during the news conference in Indianapolis on Monday afternoon announcing he’ll continue indefinitely as Colts coach.
When I heard that comment, I had one response: Amen.
There are days when I’m not so proud to be part of the "modern journalism" family. Scratch that. There are years when I’m not so proud. I think it’s because I started in the business about a quarter-century ago, when news actually had to happen first before you reported it.
Coach quits: news.
Coach fired: news.
Coach thinking things over: not really news.
So I have this quaint suggestion, at least in this small corner of the sports world: Can we please take Dungy at his word next year when this inevitably comes up again? Colts owner Jim Irsay said this won’t be a "victory lap" or "just definitely one year or something like that." They want Dungy to stick around a few more years, even as Jim Caldwell waits in line as successor.
So, if Dungy says next January (or February, if the season turns out great) that he’s undecided about remaining Colts coach, and he’ll let us know in a week or so, can we report that as the only "facts" we know?
I suggested this approach in a column 10 days ago after the "story" broke that Dungy might not coach the Colts next season because his son had enrolled in a high school in Tampa. Dungy said he wouldn’t talk about his family’s business, but added that he’d review his professional situation after the season, just as he had the last few years. He said he hadn’t decided whether to return as coach or not. I wrote that I believed him. I wrote that we shouldn’t assume Dungy’s retirement was a done deal because the man himself said it wasn’t a done deal.
Turns out, I was in the minority at accepting face value, because most columnists, television analysts and radio talk-show hosts weighed in with the opinion that Dungy was gone.
In fact, I had a colleague point me to a Web site that proclaimed "Dungy out, Caldwell in," by saying a "league source tells us" that the Dungy resignation and Jim Caldwell ascension was confirmed.
Dungy expressed puzzlement that people wouldn’t believe him when he said he hadn’t decided yet.
See, unless the "league source" was Dungy _ which it clearly wasn’t _ there was nothing to report. But the facts never get in the way of the Internet breaking "news." It’s a haphazard race to be "first," that has spilled over to the mainstream media, too.
And that brings me back to Dungy’s family moves.
It’s interesting, on a curiosity level, that his family will apparently live in Tampa while he works in Indianapolis. But is it any of our business? It’s surely not an indication of what Dungy will do professionally, which is why we’re reporting on him in the first place. Most media made the wrong assumption when his son switched schools.
It’s true that Dungy invites scrutiny of his family to some extent because he talks so publicly about being a father, and lends his name and reputation to organizations such as All Pro Dad, a group promoting involved fathers. But if he wants to work in Indianapolis and live in Tampa, and all the complications that might come with that, it’s his business.
One of the questions directed at Dungy on Monday was how being a good father could square with him working so far from home.
That’s what prompted Dungy’s "it doesn’t need to be anybody else’s business" answer.
We’re surely not too dense as journalists to believe that good fathers or husbands have to follow one cookie-cutter format. Nor do good coaches have to behave a certain way, as Dungy has proved already.
Actually, maybe we are dense as journalists.
Most of us didn’t even consider the old-fashioned approach of taking a man at his word.
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