TUNNEY-SIDE-OF-THE-STREET

#110 February 5 2007
Welcome to this week's message from the Tunney-Side-Of-The-Street. You are encouraged to share this with fellow workers, family and friends.

After further review...

"I have a dream..." stated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his unforgettable speech on August 28, 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. That "dream" is becoming a reality in many places throughout our country and this year in the Super Bowl.

When the Chicago Bears beat the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Divisional Playoffs on January 21, 2007, Lovie Smith, the Bears' Head Coach became the first black coach to win an NFC Championship. A few hours later, the Indianapolis Colts defeated the New England Patriots for the AFC title with Tony Dungy becoming the first black coach to win an AFC Championship. That set up Super Bowl XLI played yesterday in Dolphin Stadium with both coaches of African American heritage.

While it is historic in that sense, it makes little sense to keep harping on the racial factor that has been written and spoken about for two weeks. These two coaches, Smith and Dungy, have proven themselves worthy of being Super Bowl contenders, not because of their color, but because of their football knowledge, an ability to merge professional players into a T*E*A*M and do it with the class befitting the best of NFL head coaches.

The strength of Smith and Dungy to inspire others is second-to-none. Dungy hired Smith to be the Linebacker Coach at Tampa Bay in the same year he hired Herm Edwards to be Assistant Head Coach of the Bucs. Herm, Defensive Backfield Coach with the Kansas City Chiefs at the time, didn't want to leave the Chiefs, who had given him his first job through the NFL's Minority Fellowship Program. Carl Peterson, Chiefs' President encouraged Edwards to go with Dungy saying, "Herm, there's a strong future for you in the NFL - go, take Dungy's offer". Herm did and followed that job to become Head Coach of the New York Jets in 2001.

Dungy is a teacher-of-teachers. He hired Edwards and Smith because of their character, their personalities and an ability to communicate. On that Tampa Bay coaching staff, Dungy also hired Rod Marinelli, now Head Coach of the Detroit Lions and Mike Tomlin recently selected to be the Head Coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. This places Dungy in the head-coaching category of other great NFL coaches, who develop assistant coaches to become head coaches.

I hope the message becomes clear - the primary factors for head coaching jobs are character, special personalities and an ability to teach and coach. While this match up of Smith and Dungy is historic, let us now move beyond their ethnicity. They have prepared themselves to be NFL Head Coaches - let's give them a chance to be recognized as such. Will you look for strength of character and personality as primary characteristics in selecting others?

Look for my book
It's the Will, Not the Skill
Principles and philosophies of success
For more information about Jim Tunney, go to www.jimtunney.com
Visit my blog for the entire collection of my Tunney Sides:
http://tunney-side-of-the-street.blogspot.com

ARTICLE TAGLINE FOR JIM TUNNEY, Ed.D., CSP, CPAE

Copyright © 2003 Jim Tunney. All rights reserved.
You can visit Jim's website at http://www.jimtunney.com

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