surprisingly good story; not my normal read anymore ( )

Such a touching moving memoir by one of the classiest personalities in football. While the book is jam-packed with enough college and NFL football history and stats to make it an appealing read for any football fan, it is Dungy's up front and on fire affirmation of his faith that plays center stage. I now have even more admiration and respect for this man of integrity. ( )

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Reason read: TIOLI, a autobiography of someone born in the same decade as myself. Tony Dungy was born in 1955 and he also played football for the Minnesota Gophers, coached for Vikings and that would be about all we share except religion. Tony believes that a winning life is one led for the Lord. I would say that Tony Dungy had a hard life with many job changes, and the death of his son. He never complains but always sees that God is in control of everything. ( )

Tony Dungy is a rather unique and inspiring person. Tony Dungy has been in the National Football League as a coach for many years. As a head coach he lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the brink of a championship before being let go. He finally got over the hump by winning Super Bowl XLI over the Chicago Bears behind Peyton Manning and the feisty play of strong safety Bob Sanders.

This memoir is about how Coach Dungy applies his Christian faith to not only his coaching in professional football, but to his life off the field as well. His approach to coaching football is certainly unique. He is no Bill Parcel’s who often demeans his players, sometimes in public, to motivate them. He is also not the stereotypical coach who screams, yells, and cusses at his players when they make mistakes or in an attempt to fire them up or get the best out them. His style, by all accounts, is a quiet, understated approach that has certainly worked well for him. He rebuilt the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from a lousy team to a championship caliber team but could never quite get the wins in the playoffs to reach the Super Bowl. He was, most would say, unfairly fired by the Buccaneers as they seemed to feel he was not going to get them past the playoffs and to the Super Bowl. One year after he was let go buy the Bucs, the team won Super Bowl XXXVII over the Oakland Raiders with Jon Gruden as head coach.

After being hired as head coach by the Indianapolis Colts, Dungy quietly built up the defensive side of the ball. The defensive unit had often let the team down and was clearly a weak link. While the Colts defense never became quite as good as his Buccaneers teams, it was just good enough to get a Super Bowl win.

Beyond talking about applying his faith to his role as head coach, Dungy talks about the importance of his family and his community and how he has striven to give all he can to each. And through this memoir, the reader learns a lot about Dungy’s career in the NFL and his teams, so there is plenty of football talk in the book to please fans of the game. He also talks about how his faith helped him cope with the inexplicable suicide of his teenage son.

Overall, this is an excellent book if you are a fan of football or you just want to hear the story of a devoutly religious man and how he applies his faith to everyday life.
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