Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Yes, Tony Dungy deserves to be in Ring of Honor
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers announced this week former head coach Tony Dungy would be inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor during the 2018 NFL Season. Some fans apparently aren’t fans of the move.
When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers host the Pittsburgh Steelers on September 24th for Monday Night Football it won’t just be the first time the team plays in primetime this year. It’ll also be the first time Tony Dungy dons Bucs colors since he was fired from the team in 2002.
Some fans have voiced displeasure with the announcement, usually citing the lack of a Super Bowl title as cause to keep Dungy out. I for one, couldn’t disagree with those fans more.
We all know what happened after the coach left. Jon Gruden came in with his more aggressive attitude, made some changes of his own, and won the franchise’s only Super Bowl title to date.
Which is great. And its why Gruden himself went into the Ring of Honor just last season amidst swirling speculation he was returning to the organization to once again be the head coach.
Whether you believe the 2002-2003 Tampa Bay Buccaneers team was Gruden’s team or Dungy’s team being driven by Gruden, you can’t deny the impact Coach Dungy had on the franchise.
No, he didn’t win a ring, but he did bring about an era of being a Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan which made us all proud to don the brand.
Prior to his arrival in 1996 the franchise had just two winning seasons in 20 years as a franchise. Ok, three if you count the 5-4 strike shortened season of 1982. Either way you count it, the ‘Yucs’ were real.
With Dungy, being a Bucs fan no longer became a labor of love. To be a Bucs fan meant to stand defiantly in the face of other franchises like the Dallas Cowboys, and Philadelphia Eagles. As they stood and laughed bragging about their playoff wins or Super Bowl titles, we had loyalty.
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Then came Coach Dungy. And not only did we have loyalty, but we had wins. Lots of them. Three years of double digit wins and the clubs first playoff win since 1979. Then came another in 1999 along with a Defensive Player of the Year award for Warren Sapp.
Dungy’s first year was a losing season as well. The team went 6-10 and finished last in the old NFC Central.
This was followed by the most successful string of Bucs football we’ve ever seen. Ever.
Over the next five years, Dungy’s team went 48-31 and made the playoffs each of those years. In contrast, in Gruden’s first five seasons, the team won 39 games. Including the 2002-2003 Super Bowl season.
For the current day Bucs, you’d have to combine all the wins from 2009-2017 spanning four head coaches (Raheem Morris, Greg Schiano, Lovie Smith and Dirk Koetter) to eclipse Dungy’s win total. And you’d only beat it by two.
In his six years at the helm of the ship, the team only finished fourth in the division once. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have finished in that exact position nine of the sixteen seasons since he left.
But he didn’t win a Super Bowl. For a franchise fan base which was so united in calling for the job of Dirk Koetter after last year’s disappointing campaign, you’d think we’d all be equally united in celebrating the only coach to foster continuous success.
Speaking of Sapp. You remember him. The young man from Miami who was physically disgusted when he got drafted to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers?
It was Tony Dungy and Monte Kiffin’s system which brought him around. Who fostered the conversion of Sapp from an angry young player into a dominant franchise cornerstone.
To this day, he still has the highest winning percentage of any head coach in franchise history. And let’s be honest, had Gruden gotten another season Dungy would be the only winning head coach in franchise history.
At least we have two.
Koetter currently sits four games under .500, so a 10-6 season brings him even if the team can achieve this in 2018. But then there’s the future. And this is why Dungy needs to be celebrated.
Dungy didn’t have one fireworks filled campaign followed by years of duds and disappointments.
He built a consistent winner. And had he had the chance to bring on players like Ed Reed, Antwaan Randle El or Charles Tillman and Osi Umenyiora – all guys who were available at the picks the Bucs traded away for coach Gruden – who knows how many more winning seasons Dungy’s team could have put together.
This is all speculation though, and for the record I enjoy the Super Bowl win like any other Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan does.
However, to celebrate the fireworks without celebrating the man who helped light the fuse would be disrespectful at best.
Bottom line is, Tony Dungy deserves his spot among Bucs greats.
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