Tony Dungy famous quotes

We often can't see what God is doing in our lives, but God sees the whole picture and His plan for us clearly.
-- Tony Dungy

#Religious #Plans

I was not asked whether I would have a problem having Michael Sam on my team. I would not.
-- Tony Dungy

#Team #Problem

It's about the journey--mine and yours--and the lives we can touch, the legacy we can leave, and the world we can change for the better.
-- Tony Dungy

#Journey #Legacy #World

The secret to success is good leadership, and good leadership is all about making the lives of your team members or workers better.
-- Tony Dungy

#Leadership #Team #Nfl

I am a firm believer that the Lord sometimes has to short-circuit even our best plans for our benefit.
-- Tony Dungy

#Benefits #Sometimes #Short Circuit

People look at me and see a calm, cool guy on the sidelines and I want them to know that my Christian faith affects my coaching and everything I do.
-- Tony Dungy

#Christian #Nfl #People

I wouldn’t have taken him. Not because I don’t believe Michael Sam should have a chance to play, but I wouldn’t want to deal with all of it. [...] It’s not going to be totally smooth things will happen.
-- Tony Dungy

#Taken #Believe #Play

The first step toward creating an improved future is developing the ability to envision it. VISION will ignite the fire of passion that fuels our commitment to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to achieve excellence. Only VISION allows us to transform dreams of greatness into the reality of achievement through human action. VISION has no boundaries and knows no limits. Our VISION is what we become in life.
-- Tony Dungy

#Dream #Commitment #Passion

The Lord has a plan. We always think the plans are A, B, C and D, and everything is going to be perfect for us and it may not be that way, but it's still His plan.
-- Tony Dungy

#Thinking #Perfect #May

God’s definition of success is really one of significance-the significant difference our lives can make in the lives of others. The significance doesn’t show up in won-loss records, long resumes, or the trophies gathering dust on our mantels. It’s found in the hearts and lives of those we’ve come across who are in some way better because of the way we lived.
-- Tony Dungy

#Heart #Loss #Dust

Courage is the ability to do the right thing, all the time, no matter how painful or uncomfortable it might be.
-- Tony Dungy

#Might #Matter #Painful

I realized that I needed to be more like the shepherd than the hired hand in protecting my team.
-- Tony Dungy

#Team #Hands #Religion

What's important is not the uniform or the number, and it's not what team you play for or whether anyone else sees your value; it's who you are on the inside. And when you're in Christ, that's never going to change.
-- Tony Dungy

#Football #Team #Play

Winning would create greater potential for change than talk alone.
-- Tony Dungy

#Football #Winning #Inspiring Football

I have yet to hear God's audible voice, although I have often felt led by God in more subtle ways.
-- Tony Dungy

#Voice #Way #Subtle

Remember that mentor leadership is all about serving. Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
-- Tony Dungy

#Jesus #Son #Men

You can’t always control circumstances. However, you can always control your attitude, approach, and response.
-- Tony Dungy

#Attitude #Circumstances #Approach

You don't win on emotion. You win on execution.
-- Tony Dungy

#Winning #Effort #Execution

Be successful not just in what you do, but in who you are.
-- Tony Dungy

#Successful #Being Successful #Who You Are

It's the journey that matters. Learning is more important than the test. Practice well, and the games will take care of themselves.
-- Tony Dungy

#Football #Journey #Practice

Character is the glue that bonds solid and meaningful relationships
-- Tony Dungy

#Meaningful #Character #Glue

If we have trouble hearing Him, He will faithfully work in our lives until we are pointed in the direction He wants us to go.
-- Tony Dungy

#Want #Hearing #Trouble

I had 10 to 12 close buddies who I played ball with all the way from elementary to high school. That is where I learned to compete.
-- Tony Dungy

#School #Way #Balls

That's the difference between the NCAA and the NFL right now. They've got to step up and say, 'We're going to do the right thing. We're going to hire qualified people. We're going to hire the best man for the job regardless of what boosters or anyone else has to say.'
-- Tony Dungy

#Jobs #Men #Nfl

I need to treat everybody fairly, but fair doesn't always mean equal.
-- Tony Dungy

#Leadership #Mean #Nfl

Sometimes I think God wants there to be a circus so we can show there's another way to respond.
-- Tony Dungy

#Thinking #Want #Circus

You may not win the Super Bowl. Your kids may not go on to be doctors and lawyers and everything may not go perfectly. That doesn't mean it was a bad plan or the wrong thing. It's just like a football season. Everything's not going to go perfect.
-- Tony Dungy

#Football #Mean #Kids

But there's no substitute for a full-time dad. Dads who are fully engaged with their kids overwhelmingly tend to produce children who believe in themselves and live full lives.
-- Tony Dungy

#Dad #Children #Father

The first step toward creating an improved future is developing the ability to envision it.
-- Tony Dungy

#Creating #Firsts #Steps

Everything's not going to go perfect. You're going to have some losses that you're going to have to bounce back from and some things that are a little unforeseen that you're going to have to deal with.
-- Tony Dungy

#Loss #Perfect #Littles

You can have an impact anywhere you are.
-- Tony Dungy

#Impact

Our goal was to win, to win a Super Bowl, but also to win in the right way, to be role models to our community, to represent Indianapolis, the state of Indiana and the National Football League.
-- Tony Dungy

#Football #Winning #League

No excuses. No explanations.
-- Tony Dungy

#No Excuses #Excuse #Explanation

Things will go wrong at times. You can't always control your attitude, approach, and response. You options are to complain or to look ahead and figure out how to make the situation better
-- Tony Dungy

#Attitude #Looks #Complaining

We have a number of difficulties facing our nation, but I believe fatherlessness is right at the top of the list.
-- Tony Dungy

#Believe #Numbers #Lists

If you want to make a difference in the lives of the people you lead, you must be willing to walk alongside them, to lift and encourage them, to share moments of understanding with them, and to spend time with them, not just shout down at them from on high.
-- Tony Dungy

#Differences #People #Understanding

I love coaching football, and winning a Super Bowl was a goal I've had for a long time. But it has never been my purpose in life. My purpose in life is simply to glorify God. We have to be careful that we don't let the pursuit of our life's goals, no matter how important they seem, cause us to lose sight of our purpose. I coach football. But the good I can do to glorify God along the way is my real purpose.
-- Tony Dungy

#Football #Real #Winning

When it's over, it's over is part of football's greatest appeal to me. When a game ends, win or lose, it's time to prepare for the next one.
-- Tony Dungy

#Football #Winning #Games

A good leader gets people to follow him because they want to, not because he makes them.
-- Tony Dungy

#Football #People #Leader

Take a moment to think about your answer to this question: Am I prepared to have great success and not get any credit for it?
-- Tony Dungy

#Thinking #Credit #Answers

Engage, educate, equip, encourage, empower, energize, and elevate. Those are the methods for maximizing the potential of any individual, team, organization, or institution for ultimate success and significance. Those are the methods of a mentor leader.
-- Tony Dungy

#Team #Organization #Empowering

I talk to our players about life and situations and doing the right thing all the time.
-- Tony Dungy

#Sports #Player #Situation

I could never have pictured myself writing a book when I was 25 years old. My mom was an English teacher but I wasn't that way growing up.
-- Tony Dungy

#Mom #Teacher #Growing Up

I enjoy talking to young people, and talking to people about helping young people. That part is not a chore. It's pretty fun, and something I like to do because I think it's important.
-- Tony Dungy

#Fun #Thinking #Talking

Integrity is what you do when no one is watching; its doing the right thing all the time, even when it may work to your disadvantage.
-- Tony Dungy

#Integrity #May #Disadvantages

Anyone who's a parent dreads that call in the middle of the night. I have four grown children and I still dread it.
-- Tony Dungy

#Children #Night #Parent

Gay marriage and who should be on a football team have nothing to do with each other.
-- Tony Dungy

#Football #Team #Gay

Who really benefits from discouragement? More often than not, encouragement is exactly what is needed.
-- Tony Dungy

#Encouragement #Benefits #Moral

What you do is not as important as how you do it.
-- Tony Dungy

#Important

Be a pro. • Act like a champion. • Respond to adversity; don’t react. • Be on time. Being late means either it’s not important to you or you can’t be relied upon. • Execute. Do what you’re supposed to do when you’re supposed to do it. Not almost. All the way. Not most of the time. All of the time. • Take ownership. Whatever it takes. No excuses, no explanations.
-- Tony Dungy

#Mean #Adversity #Champion

Life is challenging. I wish I could tell you that you’ll always be on top of the mountain, but the reality is that there are days when nothing will go right, when not only will you not be on top, you may not even be able to figure out which way is up. Do yourself a favor, and don’t make it any harder than it has to be. In those moments,      be careful how you speak to yourself;      be careful how you think of yourself;      be careful how you conduct yourself;      be careful how you develop yourself.
-- Tony Dungy

#Reality #Thinking #Challenges

Avoidance doesn’t solve anything; it merely serves as a temporary salve.
-- Tony Dungy

#Solve #Temporary #Avoidance

And one game, as we know, can cost you a lot.
-- Tony Dungy

#Games #Cost

He's probably the hardest-working guy I've been around who has great ability. Overachievers work hard because they have to. Peyton has rare talent, but chooses to push himself like he doesn't.
-- Tony Dungy

#Hard Work #Guy #Talent

Don't worry about your platform; focus on your impact.
-- Tony Dungy

#Impact #Worry #Focus

Part of our purpose in life is to build a legacy – a consistent pattern of building into the lives of others.
-- Tony Dungy

#Purpose #Patterns #Legacy

What will people remember us for? Are other people’s lives better because we lived? Did we make a difference? Did we use to the fullest the gifts and abilities God gave us? Did we give our best effort, and did we do it for the right reasons?
-- Tony Dungy

#Differences #Giving #People

I've always talked to players about perception and reality. I don't worry about perception. There may be some of that, that people want to attach to a good name, but the reality is that some good things can happen.
-- Tony Dungy

#Player #Reality #Names

Your life has been intentionally designed by God to have a uniquely significant and eternal impact on the world around you.
-- Tony Dungy

#Impact #World #Significant

Stubbornness is a virtue if you are right.
-- Tony Dungy

#Virtue #Stubbornness

You never know what's going to happen. My mother was an English teacher. If someone had told her that I was going to write a book, she would never have believed that. So you can never say never.
-- Tony Dungy

#Mother #Teacher #Book

It's just really making sure I am doing the best job I can do as a dad. I do think that is my No. 1 job.
-- Tony Dungy

#Jobs #Dad #Thinking

When things get difficult it can be easy to complain. How you respond makes all the difference
-- Tony Dungy

#Differences #Complaining #Easy

Integrity, the choice between what's convenient and what's right.
-- Tony Dungy

#Integrity #Choices

If you're just saying, hey, I'm doing this. I'm working to make money. I'm working to increase my status. If that's all there is, I think you will find out that it's meaningless.
-- Tony Dungy

#Thinking #Hey #Making Money

Remember that mentor leadership is all about serving.
-- Tony Dungy

#Mentor #Remember

I think there are times when I believe God welcomes the circus into our lives to give us an opportunity to show that there’s another way to live and respond to things.
-- Tony Dungy

#Believe #Opportunity #Thinking

Don't shed any tears for me. I got to live a dream most people don't get to live.
-- Tony Dungy

#Dream #People #Tears

Success is uncommon and not to be enjoyed by the common man.  I'm looking for uncommon people because we want to be successful, not average.
-- Tony Dungy

#Successful #Men #Average

The truth is that most people have a better chance to be uncommon by effort than by natural gifts.  Anyone could give that effort in his or her chosen endeavor, but the typical person doesn't, choosing to do only enough to get by.
-- Tony Dungy

#Giving #People #Effort

If you're a leader, people's lives should be better because of the influence you've had along the way.
-- Tony Dungy

#Leadership #People #Way

Long-term success requires faith-faith that your efforts to plan and execute the process will lead to the desired outcome.
-- Tony Dungy

#Long #Effort #Outcomes

If someone needs help, I can offer advice. I'm not always right and people don't always listen.
-- Tony Dungy

#People #Advice #Needs

Once we had become locked in on a schedule, he (Coach Denny Green) often created a disruption (artificial adversity) to that schedule just to see how guys would respond.
-- Tony Dungy

#Leadership #Adversity #Guy

(Offensive Coach) Paul Hackett realized that Joe Montana knew more about the offense than he did, but when the meeting was over, Paul saw that Joe had taken three pages of notes. He documented exactly how Paul wanted to run the play, as well as all of the basics of it and its details. That's what a professional does.
-- Tony Dungy

#Leadership #Running #Taken

But I know I have a son who doesn't listen to anything I say and if he hears the same thing from someone else, sometimes it has a little more impact.
-- Tony Dungy

#Son #Impact #Littles

DON'T FEAR FAILURE. Fear being successful at things that don't matter
-- Tony Dungy

#Successful #Matter #Being Successful

We talked about some of our experiences, focusing, hanging together down the stretch, important games. It's not necessarily who has the most talent but what team sticks together and executes their fundamentals the best.
-- Tony Dungy

#Team #Games #Together

What's important is not the accolades and memories of success but the way you respond when opportunities are denied.
-- Tony Dungy

#Football #Memories #Opportunity

And if God has given you a lot of ability, I believe you should be held to a higher level of expectation.
-- Tony Dungy

#Football #Believe #Expectations

At the end of the day, the only people a One Voice doctrine silences are those who should be the most loyal.
-- Tony Dungy

#Football #Voice #People

There are certain bridges that are not worth crossing, no matter what others think. Loyalty and relationships are important.
-- Tony Dungy

#Loyalty #Football #Thinking

I needed to do my current job well, keep preparing, and wait on God's timing. I needed to trust His leadership rather than try to force an outcome I wanted.
-- Tony Dungy

#Football #Jobs #Waiting

I learned it doesn't matter how you win. You play to your team's strength.
-- Tony Dungy

#Football #Team #Winning

I said all along that God is in control.
-- Tony Dungy

#Football #God Is In Control #Inspiring Football

God's definition of success is really one of the significant differences our lives can make in the lives of others.
-- Tony Dungy

#Leadership #Football #Differences

I hired top-notch people, trusted them to do their jobs, and then came to grips with the fact that I wouldn't be coaching as much.
-- Tony Dungy

#Football #Jobs #People

We believed it was not our formations that made us good, but rather how we played.
-- Tony Dungy

#Football #Inspiring Football #Made

I guess I'm flattered that people think I can help get things done.
-- Tony Dungy

#Thinking #People #Done