Tony Dungy was a rookie head coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers when he hired Lovie Smith to join his staff as linebackers coach in 1996. The two had never crossed paths before, but they met again as head coaches of the Indianapolis Colts and the Bears, respectively, in Super Bowl XLI on February 4, 2007. It was the first time that any team was led to the Super Bowl by an African-American head coach.
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| LOVIE SMITH AND TONY DUNGY BEFORE SUPER BOWL XLI. |
“We’re friends, number one,” Dungy said in the days before the game. “I just have so much respect for [Smith], the way he does things. I know how their guys are coached, I know how they are treated. I am very proud of him and I am very happy to call him my friend.”
Both Dungy and Smith went against the stereotype of the fire-breathing football coach. “When you have a coach that’s not a yeller and a screamer,” said Bears cornerback Nathan Vasher, “he gets his point across and that’s that.”
It was Dungy and the Colts who ultimately got their point across in the Super Bowl, defeating the Bears 29-17. “I’m very proud to be representing African-American coaches in the Super Bowl, the first time it’s been done,” said Dungy. “But we also realize that there were many, many guys before us who, if given the opportunity, could have done the same thing.”
“So in one way it’s bittersweet, but in one way, it’s a very, very proud day.”
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