Top 194 Quotes & Sayings by Tony Dungy - Page 3

God allows us to feel pain for a reason: to protect us.

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.

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

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

(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.

And as a football coach in the National Football League, I know for sure that it's going to end someday.

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.

Nothing is more deflating to morale than to have a poor outcome pinned on someone who doesn't deserve it. It lacks integrity and overvalues the outcome at the expense of the people as well as the process.

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

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

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

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

First, there is no typical grief cycle, and second, it's not something I went through. I'm still grieving.

What you do is not as important as how you do it.

Michael Vick is a work in progress. I think he really is wanting to do the right thing. I think the Philadelphia Eagles have been a great organization for him. He's had some ups and downs. He still has to learn to not put himself in, maybe bad situations, in terms of personal life and friends, and that kind of thing. But all in all, I think he's growing every day.

There's a difference between making incremental improvements and making sweeping changes that take you away from your core values.

At some point in life's journey, professionally and personally, we have to be able to trust our preparation.

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.

The fundamental keys to the culture of any organization can only be achieved when everyone is on the same page.

Hard work and togetherness. They go hand in hand. You need the hard work because it's such a tough atmosphere... to win week in and week out. You need togetherness because you don't always win, and you gotta hang though together.

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

You have gifts, abilities, and dreams no one else has.

Change isn't always bad; we should always be learning and improving. But the change I was seeing involved principles, not procedures.

You need togetherness because you don't always win, and you have got to hang though together

I said all along that God is in control.

We have a whole generation of men who don't understand how much they mean to their kids.

Football is a vocation and an opportunity for ministry. But it's not a life.

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.

We are all important, but we are not indispensable.

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

If I can't get the captains to respond appropriately and show the leadership I expect, how is anyone else going to respond?

I've always tried to coach people the way I would like to be coached; positively and encouragingly rather than with criticism and fear ... I've tried to be as fair as possible.

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

We wanted guys who had been productive in college, and we made it a point to pick performance over potential.

The regular season games are much more intense. And also, I believe that in 16 games, some teams separate themselves. The good teams separate themselves from the not-so-good teams. The longer the season is, the bigger that separation will get.

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

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

I'm probably going to be an Indianapolis fan.

There are weaknesses that you have to understand and it takes a lot of discipline for the players to be able to play it effectively and have confidence in what they're doing.

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.

My dad took me to a high school basketball game and this very, very famous coach in Michigan, by the name of Lofton Greene - he was a guy that my dad was familiar with. He was from our hometown. And I watched the game and I said I didn't see this guy doing a lot of coaching. And my dad told me, well, it's just like a teacher - which he was - he said if you do a good job teaching during the week, when they take the test on Friday, that's not the time you have to do a lot of demonstrative things.

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

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

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.

When I was young, I didn't like to read. I would have much rather been outside doing something than been inside reading about it.

Chuck Noll knew how he could help people. He was a teacher. He was a guy that was very good at selecting people, getting them to fit in. He wasn't the guy that was going to sit there and motivate you, intrinsically. That wasn't what he was best at. So he hired people that were good at that.

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

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

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

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

It's easy to lose sight of the ultimate goal when you're in the trenches.

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

Keeping ridiculous hours doesn't mean you'll be successful.

I found that while life drags on when you're losing, it marches on when you're winning.

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

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

As a father of seven kids, and been a kid myself at one point, I realize you don't always make the best decisions every time out. And life is a learning experience.

No excuses. No explanations.

The biggest thing you need to be successful with it is a quarterback who wants to be involved in the decision-making process and not just merely want to execute plays sent in to him.

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.