I am fascinated by the role that Tony Dungy played in the resurrection of Mike Vick.  But I think I am even more fascinated by Dungy’s admission that he and Vick were supposed to go fishing together, years ago, and that Dungy believes that if that trip had happened he might have been able to stop the dog-fighting, and weed-smoking, and money-blowing, and every other screw-up that Vick has been a part of.  Make no mistake, if Dungy is going to play out every what-if scenario he surely has a lot of sleepless nights.  But then again, if Dungy is going to apply that singular focus of a NFL coach to the mission of a Prison Minister then he just might be the most important person in the NFL today.

Assuming that Vick doesn’t piss his reputation away, Coach Dungy might just have found his true purpose.  And this new role could have an even more lasting effect than the Tampa 2; Dungy’s new role could be to change an entire generation’s future. 

I told God I’ll be back in a second/ Man, it’s so hard not to act reckless–Kayne West, “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”

Andy Reid and the Eagles have admitted that they looked no further into Vick then a phone call to Dungy- no workout, no psychological evaluation, nothing, just his word.  This is only a few weeks after Roger Goodell conditionally reinstated Vick almost exclusively because Dungy gave the go-ahead. 

Tony Dungy currently has more credibility than anyone in the NFL.  By a lot.  I mean it’s not even close.  And not just as a judge for football talent, but as a judge of character. 

To whom much is given, much is tested/ Get arrested, guess until they get the message–Kayne West, “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” 

In Dungy’s memoirs, Quiet Strength, he addresses the fact that he grew up in Jackson, Michigan which is, among other things, a prison town.  Ultimately all three of his siblings went into some form of health care, but one sister in particular went into inmate care.  I am not going to Psych 101 them and try to examine the role of the prison on the Dungy family’s youth but Tony and his sister have put great effort towards caring for the incarcerated.  And clearly trying to get prisoners to turn their lives around is important work but it is equally clear that there are many in the NFL who are on that same path for prison.

Tony admits rather sheepishly in his book that his primary line of work has brought him more notoriety than any of his hard-working siblings; but now is the time for Coach Dungy to put humility by the wayside.  Dungy’s experience in the jailhouse and his experience in football make him uniquely qualified to address the current plague on the NFL but it will only happen if he pushes for it.

I feel the pressure, under more scrutiny/ and what I do? Act more stupidly -Kayne West, “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”

Go ahead and try to name all of the current NFL players in trouble with the law.  It’s a list long enough to have its own website- in fact seems to be trying, but despite 8 different entries in the last 6 weeks it still can’t keep up. 

Famous examples, alongside Vick’s, are of course Plaxico Burress, Pac-Man Jones, and about 3 dozen or so DUIs- why Donte Stallworth, or anyone making an NFL salary, can’t afford a driver is beyond me- but each off-season the list gets longer and more gruesome.  Even worse are examples like Chris Henry and Tank Johnson that have become poster-children for recidivism.  (In doing some research for this column I came across a few message board commenters who tried to make this about race, and my response to them is Matt Jones, Bill Romanowski, and just for good measure, Ryan Leaf.) 

And here’s the thing- I don’t blame NFL coaches.  A current NFL head coach works 90-hr weeks just to prepare for the game, I don’t expect them to also be baby-sitter/camp-counselor/parole-officer.  Every minute they spend playing shrink is a minute they didn’t spend preparing their team for the field, and if that leads to a loss then they won’t be a coach for much longer. 

I also don’t blame organizations.  A team’s front office needs to sign players they feel can help them win.  Is PR a part of that decision?  Of course.  But I think the Manny Ramirez lovefest is proof that talent cures all ills. 

I think this current rash of off-the-field publicity- which is proof that there is such a thing as bad publicity- falls on the broad-shoulders of the NFL.  And to his credit Commissioner Goodell doesn’t want to play the fiddle while Rome burns; clearly cleaning up the league’s act, if only for PR sake, is a top priority.

So why not place Tony Dungy in charge of it?  Obviously Dungy couldn’t personally do it all, but he has already set up organizations like Mentors for Life and a handful of Prison Ministries, so why not cede that area to him?  The NFL will still wield the hammer of suspensions, but why not make mentoring and honest-to-goodness counseling a more public priority?  And why not put Tony Dungy’s face on that mission?  

I had a dream I can buy my way to heaven/When I awoke, I spent that on a necklace. -Kayne West, “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”

The modern pro athlete is catered to earlier than ever before.  With traveling club teams and sponsorship deals dangling, the modern athlete is taught less about team and more about getting whatever they want.  In a recent interview Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger discussed modern players and said that when a player has a bad game, and he knows he had a bad game, then that player has a chance to fix the problem, but when a player has a bad game and feels that he did fantastic then Arsene worries about him, not just as a player but as a person.

This ever-increasing bubble that the modern athlete grows up in is a major problem, and- as Arsene pointed out- not just on the field.  This is where Dungy is needed.  The modern athlete that is on a bad path is not going to take advice from Goodell, he’s not going to listen to the old white men in the media, he’s not going to even be able to properly analyze his game or himself.  But Dungy knows that type of person already; he knows what it’s like to be a player, he knows what it’s like to be a coach, and he knows what it’s like to try and get through to young men who have made some poor decisions.  If Dungy honestly believes that an all-day fishing trip with Vick five years ago could have prevented all of this, then Dungy needs to understand that Mike Vick isn’t an isolated incident.  There are a lot of players that don’t have the help network they need.  Dungy can’t be everywhere but he certainly knows how to set up a network that can be everywhere.  Meetings with players, looking for warning signs, these are things that Dungy is capable of and they are things that the NFL can mandate.  

Coach Dungy, you’ve spent a lot of time and effort on Prison Ministry, but the next step is to do everything you can to get to these guys before they end up in prison.