Dungy's character and influence

Excerpts from a very nice and very lengthy article about Tony Dungy from Howard Bryant at ESPN.com...

It's not salaries or strategies, endorsement opportunities or even another championship run by the team he coached for seven years, the Indianapolis Colts, that are on his mind, but how, 4½ years later, he still regrets what he sees as a major failure: He believes he could have saved the life Michael Vick once had, the one he'll never have again...

What type of individual honestly believes that, given a single afternoon on the soft water casting a fishing line into the sea, he could have been the one to change the course of another person's history? He offers a brief smile at the suggestion that entertaining such thoughts is a supreme example of naivete, arrogance, confidence, all of the above. But Dungy, whom close friends have called a messenger of God, cuts a different figure from many of his peers, one born of faith, the loss of a child and commitment....

In his first year outside the NFL since the early 1980s, Dungy is a unique and powerful figure. He has developed an enormous broadcast profile while emerging as a confidant of NFL owners, coaches and the commissioner himself. He is a connected insider, yet strives to maintain a special rapport and credibility with the country's disadvantaged.

Unlike many of the league's ex-coaches, who use the broadcast booth as a paid hammock until another position on the sideline opens, Dungy has used the platform to establish himself as a substantive voice....

"In truth, I'm pleasantly surprised. I thought he'd be pretty good, but I'm surprised he's this good," Costas says. "He's not grabbing you by the lapels and shaking you. He makes some declarative and bold statements, but never grandstands when doing it. He never makes things harshly personal. He can criticize without drawing blood, and that is actually what makes him effective over time. You can only slash and burn so many times before people say that's his shtick. He has no shtick."...