Coaches Coach

Last year, ESPN looked foolish as hell when they rearranged their whole Monday Night Football schedule around Brett Favre’s number retirement in Green Bay.  They had plans to send the whole network out to Wisconsin.  They were going to make this the biggest and best MNF season debut ever on the back of a tearful ceremony starring their favorite working class, blue collar quarterback.

Only problem?  He no-showed.  Because he is a player and players play football until they can no longer move.

ESPN (and FoxSports) are at it again now.  The thought is that Tony Dungy’s retirement is an event that requires both retrospectives on a fabulous career and shining praise for his next career, whatever that may be – we just know that it’s supposed to be really good.

Well, I respect Dungy to no end, and I would never disrespect him (lest The AMT kill me with his bare hands), but coaches coach.  Maybe Dungy is different, but Parcells came back, Ditka came back, Vermeil came back.  And those guys “retired,” as opposed to the Cowher-style “break.”  Coaches live and breathe football 24 hours a day for their whole lives.  Dungy has been a head coach for 13 seasons.  Would it be that surprising if he missed the only lifestyle he’s known for more than a decade?

No, it wouldn’t.  Coaches coach and unemployed coaches want to coach.  Very few successfully ride off into the sunset.  Maybe Dungy will, but in either case: shouldn’t ESPN and Fox be a little more tentative about praising Dungy’s next career that hasn’t even happened yet?  Especially given the history that coaches have of coming back and the recent tendency of big names to unretire…

So when Dungy is coaching the Bears in a few years and ESPN, Fox, and others report the story as “Dungy’s Back!”… try to remember how they reported his retirement too, because they certainly won’t want to talk about it.