Dungy Says Vick Deserves Another Chance

Tony Dungy, the Super Bowl-winning coach who visited suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick in prison recently, told a group Wednesday that the troubled baller deserves another chance in the NFL. “I think Michael is just like so many other guys that I have seen, so many other people who are nameless, faceless in that environment,” Dungy said. “It’s a young man that made a mistake and is looking for a chance to recover and move forward. That’s where he is and that’s where so many of the men who are here today are.” Dungy, who visited Vick a few weeks ago at the federal Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan., was speaking to a group at a workshop for ex-offenders seeking jobs. He has also been involved in several other outreach activities since announcing that he was done with coaching. “I’m doing way more than I thought I would be, and maybe more than I should,” Dungy told The Associated Press. “That’s one of the fun things about not being tied down to an NFL schedule. You have time to take a day to go wherever. To be able to say I can go here on this day and work on this project, that’s been the fun part of it.” Dungy is the first African American coach to win a Super Bowl, the first coach to make 10 straight playoff appearances and the first to win at least 12 games in six straight seasons. His regular-season winning percentage of .668 is fifth all-time among coaches with at least 100 wins and his 10.7 regular-season wins per year is tops among that group.

 
Hundreds Pay Tribute to NBA Great Chuck Daly Hundreds of mourners – including a group of the original infamous “Bad Boys” of basketball – turned out to pay their final respects to Chuck Daly, the longtime NBA coach who was laid to rest Wednesday. Standing side by side were behemoths Bill Laimbeer and Rick Mahorn, along with former shooting sensation Joe Dumars and ball wizard Isiah Thomas and Vinnie Johnson, all members of the team Daly led to the NBA Promised Land in both 1989 and 1990. “He was coaching all of us until the day he died,” Thomas said. “He was a wonderful, wonderful human being and a great mentor, a great friend.” Also among those in attendance were other respected sages of the game, such as former Philadelphia Sixers championship coach Billy Cunningham and Villanova University national championship coach Rollie Massimino. Daly, 78, died Saturday in Jupiter, Fla.,. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier this year. “Coach. Daddy Rich. Prince of pessimism. Hall of Famer. Champion,” Daly’s daughter, Cydney, told mourners. “He went by many different names to many people, but there was only one person who called him daddy.”

Former Indianapolis Colts Coach Tony Dungy – the first African American to win a Super Bowl – visited with suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick Tuesday in federal prison at Leavenworth, Kan., Joel Segal, Vick’s agent, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It was a real positive meeting.” He offered no other details about the visit. Vick was sentenced to almost two years in prison for running a large dogfighting operation in Virginia. He is scheduled to be released to serve out the remaining two months of his 23-month sentence at his home on May 20.

 Tony Dungy, the former coach of the Indianapolis Colts, plans to visit Michael Vick in prison. Vick, who is on the down side of a 23-month prison term for charges stemming from dogfighting, is scheduled to see Dungy on May 5 at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan., according to ESPN.com. Dungy, the first African-American coach to win a Super Bowl, will discuss life, not football, the network reports. Vick will be heading to Virginia late next month, where he will finish his term under home confinement.

Dungy Turns Down Obama’s Faith Council
Former Indianapolis Colts Coach Tony Dungy won’t be joining President Barack Obama’s faith-based advisory board after all, reports Politico.  Obama courted Dungy – the first Black NFL head coach to lead a team to Super Bowl victory – to serve on his administration’s Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships Initiative. But Dungy’s lack of free time appeared to be the issue. More here.

President Obama has asked former Indianapolis Colts Coach Tony Dungy to serve on a  White House faith-based advisory council. Dungy has not yet decided whether he will accept the position with the Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. At least one group hopes he never accepts. Americans United for Separation of Church and State has said that Dungy should be disqualified from consideration because of his support for his 2007 efforts in Indiana to ban same-sex marriage. Read the rest.

Kobe Hits Scoring Milestone
Los Angeles Lakers Kobe Bryant’s breakaway layup with less than 11 minutes to go in the third quarter elevated him to the 20th spot in scoring in NBA history Sunday, just ahead of former Lakers great Elgin Baylor and into third in franchise history, behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jerry West. Bryant’s 28 points also elevated the Lakers to a 111-108 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves in Minneapolis. Bryant was 6-for-8 in the first half, and most of his points came off of short turnaround jumpers. “He is the best player in the game, the way he plays, the way he dominates,” Minnesota’s Randy Foye said of Bryant. “It’s just a tough matchup. It’s a mismatch all around the board. They’re always going to have a mismatch, no matter the position.” Bryant also had seven assists and six rebounds.

Dungy Blasts NCAA for Lack of Black Coaches
Former Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy, the first African American to win a Super Bowl, is blasting universities for their paucity of Black coaches, a month after walking away from professional football. In a column he wrote for The New York Times, Dungy said that the time is now for the league to ensure a fairer playing field for African-American strategists. February is when high school football players choose the colleges they will attend in the fall, Dungy said. “While it’s an exciting day for those seniors, it’s a disappointing day for me,” he writes. “You see, many of those players who choose the top schools are African American and yet almost none of them will get the opportunity to play for an African-American head coach. Of 120 teams in the N.C.A.A.’s Bowl Subdivision, the top tier of play, only seven have [B]lack head coaches. One would think that our universities would be leading the way in progressive thinking. You wouldn’t think that in 2009 it would be more likely for an African-American to become president of the United States than to be hired as head coach of a top-20 football program. But that seems to be the case.” He said that over the past decade he has been contacted by various campuses looking for head coaches, and he has recommended many men “with great leadership skills and great track records in the N.F.L. None was hired, and rarely did they even get interviewed by those universities.” He said, “With the progress that has been made in terms of diversity in politics, in other collegiate sports and in professional football … why is college football hiring so far behind?”

 Tony Dungy, the first African-American head coach to win the Super Bowl, walked away from pro football Monday, saying he was looking forward to what life has in store away from the NFL. “I’ve been tremendously blessed to play three years in the NFL and coach for 28, and those 31 years have been fantastic,” said the 53-year-old commander of the Indianapolis Colts. “… Don’t shed any tears for me. I’ve got to live a dream that most people don’t get to live. What phase two is, we’ll see…. I have a real peace about it that this is the right time.”  Read more about Dungy here.

Eagles’ Reid and McNabb Are Suddenly Golden
My, how things have changed in the City of Brotherly Love. It seemed like just yesterday that Philadelphia’s infamously fickle fans were willing to dump their all-time winning coach and Pro Bowl quarterback as the team fumbled away victories to such league also-rans as the Cincinnati Bengals and Washington Redskins. But on Sunday, shortly after Coach Andy Reid and quarterback Donovan McNabb had dismantled the Minnesota Viking’s powerful offense, Eagles’ owner Jeffrey Lurie made it clear that he had no intention of booting the duo and starting from scratch. “With Andy’s leadership, we were in four straight NFC championship games and a Super Bowl,” Lurie, who grew up in Beantown, told The Boston Globe. “We haven’t won a championship, but the quality of coaching and the quality of the performance of the team has been at a very high level.  I think if you know you have really good coaching, you want to surround it the best possible way. That’s more where we’re at – try to keep improving the team; try to maximize all our resources; and think strategically. It’s not about making the coach the target of frustration.” As for his quarterback, who is entering the final year of his contract, Lurie said, “Donovan has had a very good year, but it also has had its ups and downs. You have to know, in this sport, especially at the quarterback position, you’re going to have your ups and downs. Hopefully the ups are predominant, and he’s proven with him at quarterback, you have a very good chance of winning and winning big.” McNabb, who is under contract with the Eagles through the 2010 season (with a base salary of $9.2 million in 2009 and $10 million in 2010), has stated that he would like a new contract. The Eagles have “every intention of having him back,” Lurie said. “He’s been great to work with.”

Colts Coach Ponders Future in NFL
Will the NFL’s rapidly evaporating pool of Black head coaches get even more shallower over the next week? There’s a strong possibility that Indianapolis Colts Coach Tony Dungy could add his name to the list of African-Americans who are no longer commanding NFL teams when next season kicks off. But speculation about Dungy’s future is nothing new. For the past four years, at least, the Super Bowl-winning Dungy has announced that he would take a week off to decide whether he will return to Indianapolis or head back to his Tampa Bay home. This year marked Dungy’s NFL-record 10th straight playoff appearance. Unfortunately, his 23-17 overtime loss to the San Diego Charges was the fourth time in seven years that his powerful Colts bolted after just one playoff win. On Sunday, Dungy told NBC’s Al Michaels that if he stays, it’s because of the fans, MVP quarterback Peyton Manning and an owner who appreciates him. “When I do leave, I’m going to be leaving. Not taking a year off or two years off, so I want to make sure,” Dungy said. “I’m leaning a certain way, but every year I’ve kind of learned,” Dungy said. “My wife told me, ‘Don’t make a decision and then go back, so take some time’.”

NBA player is latest athlete to face housing market struggle

Denver Nuggets guard Allen Iverson is offering a $1 million break on his Villanova, Pa., home. The 14,000-square-footer has six bedrooms, his-and-hers marble bathrooms, a 12-seat movie theater, pool house and four-acres of land. But after at least a year on the market, Iverson and his wife, who bought the house together in 2003, have generated little interest. The price is down to $3.9 million. So get out those checkbooks.

Coach says Ed Johnson won’t play this week, following incident

Super Bowl-winning coach Tony Dungy (above) says the Colts’ Ed Johnson won’t suit-up this week following Johnson’s drug arrest early Wednesday. Cops say Johnson was pulled over for speeding in Indianapolis about 1 a.m. and was later charged with marijuana possession. The lineman was released on bond from the Hamilton County Jail. Team management says the incident will be further investigated to determine if any action is taken. The NFL says the matter will also be reviewed under the league’s substance abuse policy.

Puncher hit with claim of contract violation. At this rate, Floyd “Money” Mayweather could wind up known as Floyd “Need A Loan” Mayweather. First, he had $7 million in jewels stolen from his house and now he’s the target of a lawsuit. A Florida real estate dealer says the boxing standout wiggled away from an $8 million property purchase after signing a contract stating that his company put $1.7 million into escrow toward the buy. But the developer claims Mayweather never properly established the account before trying to move into the spot. Mayweather’s being sued for damages and costs associated with the seller’s having taken the property off the market.