Football - Spotlight On Coaches Dungy And Smith

As much as the Colts’ and Bears’ who will be competing for the Super Bowl on Sunday night, so will be their coaches. Tony Dungy, coach of Indianapolis Colts’ and Lovie Smith, coach of Chicago Bears’ are enjoying the most limelight this season. This is the first time in the history of National Football League that teams coached by two African-American coaches are playing at the Super Bowl.

Media has shown great interest in their achievements and the road they followed to achieve this. Both Dungy and Smith, who have been close friends for the last 11 years, apart from emphasizing their individual teams’ advantage, have always made it a point to express their gratitude to the NFL for the opportunities given to the minorities to become coaches.

51 year old Dungy worked for several years as an NFL assistant before he got an opportunity to head the Tampa Bay in 1996. It was a successful campaign for him as he coached them to 8 successful playoff appearances. Later, he joined the Colts’ and now he is leading them to their first ever appearance in the Super Bowl since 1980s. Dungy has himself won a Super Bowl while he was playing for Pittsburgh in 1970s.

Unlike Dungy, Smith’s path to success was completely different. He struggled a lot both as a college player and working at universities before Dungy provided him with an opportunity to work with the NFL. Smith was successful in changing the attitude of the Bears’ and got the team back onto a winning track. They won a total of 26 games in these two seasons and lost just 9 and are now playing for the Vince Lombardi Trophy under him.