Top 140 Tony Dungy Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “Avoidance doesn’t solve anything; it merely serves as a temporary salve.”

— Tony Dungy

52. “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

53. “The best solution for falling just short of the goal is to focus on the fundamentals but perform them better.”

— Tony Dungy

54. “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

55. “If we do what we do without panicking, we can accomplish great things.”

— Tony Dungy

56. “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

57. “False modesty is an attempt to tear yourself down. True humility focuses more on build up others.”

— Tony Dungy

58. “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

59. “I enjoy watching football on TV. Many times I can visualize the whole field, even on the TV screen, because I still know enough about what the teams are doing.”

— Tony Dungy

60. “Coach Noll had always told me, “Being stubborn is a virtue when you’re right; it’s only a character flaw when you’re wrong.”

— Tony Dungy

61. “Who really benefits from discouragement? More often than not, encouragement is exactly what is needed.”

— Tony Dungy

62. “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

63. “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

64. “You need togetherness because you don’t always win, and you have got to hang though together.”

— Tony Dungy

65. “I just think winners win. And guys who won all the way through high school and college, the best player at every level, they have a way of making things happen and winning games.”

— Tony Dungy

66. “I can’t very well preach unity and tell the guys we’re all in this together and everyone’s important, then cut a guy because we might improve by one percent if we bring in someone else.”

— Tony Dungy

67. “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

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

— Tony Dungy

69. “I learned it doesn’t matter how you win. You play to your team’s strength.”

— Tony Dungy

70. “Pain prompts us to change behavior that is destructive to ourselves or to others. Pain can be a highly effective instructor.”

— Tony Dungy

71. “If I can’t get the captains to respond appropriately and show the leadership I expect, how is anyone else going to respond?”

— Tony Dungy

72. “I found that while life drags on when you’re losing, it marches on when you’re winning.”

— Tony Dungy

73. “Gay marriage and who should be on a football team have nothing to do with each other.”

— Tony Dungy

74. “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

75. “Character is the glue that bonds solid and meaningful relationships.”

— Tony Dungy

76. “When I was younger I only read sports books. I loved the biographies that told how athletes developed. When I got into coaching, I did start to read more instructional books, but I was always more interested in the people behind the ideas.”

— Tony Dungy

77. “I realized that I needed to be more like the shepherd than the hired hand in protecting my team.”

— Tony Dungy

78. “They were unwillingly to give 100 percent if they didn’t personally think it was important. What you don’t understand is the champions know it’s all important.”

— Tony Dungy

79. “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

80. “If someone needs help, I can offer advice. I’m not always right and people don’t always listen.”

— Tony Dungy

81. “I just don’t think you pass on a great quarterback if you have the opportunity. If need be, you can trade it away.”

— Tony Dungy

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

— Tony Dungy

83. “Once a player joins our team, our priority is to teach him, not worry about the player we didn’t select.”

— Tony Dungy

84. “I never wanted our players to think the Super Bowl was the ultimate. I always talk about ‘Yes, we’re going to win, but what are we going to do as we’re winning? What are we going to do after we win?’ Winning the Super Bowl is not the destination. It’s not an end point. It’s what you do from here.”

— Tony Dungy

85. “I think I’ve got a responsibility to be home a little bit more, be available to my family a little bit more and do some things to help make our country better. I don’t know what that is right now, but we’ll see.”

— Tony Dungy

86. “Don’t shed any tears for me. I got to live a dream most people don’t get to live.”

— Tony Dungy

87. “At the end of the day, the only people a One Voice doctrine silences are those who should be the most loyal.”

— Tony Dungy

88. “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

89. “Football is a vocation and an opportunity for ministry. But it’s not a life.”

— Tony Dungy

90. “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

91. “We spent our whole married life in the ultra-competitive world of professional football, Lauren and I had always tried to view it through God’s eyes. As much fun as it was to be winning, we tried not to get caught up in it. We knew that our family life and our faith walk were more important.”

— Tony Dungy

92. “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

93. “And if God has given you a lot of ability, I believe you should be held to a higher level of expectation.”

— Tony Dungy

94. “We only wanted to pay significant sums to keep truly special players.”

— Tony Dungy

95. “I was able to look at football as something that God was allowing me to do, not something that should define me. I couldn’t take my identity from this sport.”

— Tony Dungy

96. “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

97. “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

98. “I do not think being a coordinator is a requirement, but it does give you some advantages. You get used to working with half the team and you go through the game-planning and decision-making processes.”

— Tony Dungy

99. “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

100. “The first thing you have to do is make sure you’re still wanted back. I never take that for granted any more.”

— Tony Dungy