Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy

Author:Tony Dungy [Tony Dungy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Published: 0100-12-31T22:00:00+00:00

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I will never forget my first time in the playoffs as a coach. I’ve gone other times since then, but none of the subsequent trips has been able to duplicate the feeling of that first playoff run. It was a new experience for so many on our team. We had coaches who had come straight from college football and many first- and second-year players. Most of our veterans had never experienced a playoff run. This was all new for the city of Tampa as well; the Buccaneers hadn’t been in the playoffs since 1982.

Our first playoff game was also the final game in the old Tampa Stadium. It was an unforgettable evening. Our players were eager to play the Lions again, and they were ready for Barry Sanders. Our defense swarmed all over the field—holding Sanders to sixty-five rushing yards and the Lions to only seventy-eight passing yards. As I looked out onto the field midway through the fourth quarter, I realized that with the way our defense was playing, the Lions wouldn’t be able to catch us. The player we had “settled for” in the 1996 draft, Mike Alstott, carried the ball for a thirty-one-yard touchdown run to ice the game.

We had won the last game in Tampa Stadium. After the game, our players ran around the field with Buccaneers flags. Brad Culpepper and others went up into the stands in full uniform to mingle with the crowd. It was bedlam. After I gave my interviews, Lauren drove us home, although many of the fans hadn’t yet left. Others were still in traffic on Dale Mabry Highway. Lauren rolled down our windows and began honking the horn, yelling, “We won! We won a playoff game! We’re going to Green Bay!”

I was mortified. “Lauren, stop! I’m the coach—we can’t be doing that!”

“I can, and I will!” Lauren kept honking and yelling, and even I started waving at the fans, who were nothing short of ecstatic. We all were—it was a great feeling.

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