Thoughts on Tony Dungy's comments?

Part of being an NFL coach is setting the tone in the locker room. That's why Miami had so many problems last year. Coach Philbin ceded the tone to his players and thug Richie Incognito. Big mistake. Dungy lets down the coaching profession by suggesting he would be too cowardly to set a positive tone. Distractions are distractions only if you allow them to be.

abc123doremi wrote:

VPNGuy wrote:

Dungy - Retired. Honest.

There's some truth to this. His job is to give the insight of what's going on in the minds of those in the draft room. Those currently doing the drafting can't say the truth, since it's against their self interest.

This guy gets it. It is not about Dungy - he just happens to be the media guy (and a previous head coach) who is prepared to discuss it, give an opinion, etc. The guys in the trenches (making draft decisions) are not going to discuss it, even if they wanted to, for obvious reasons. Dungy is a journalist (sort of), and his job is to deal with an issue such as this - reality show?! are you kidding me, how typically American - when few others are either in a position to or are willing to see this for what it is - a media circus.

If Sam had more talent, that Oprah documentary no doubt would have gone on. But she was trying to do too much for a 7th round pick who hadn't accomplished anything of significance yet.

midwestern roll wrote:

http://m.bleacherreport.com/articles/2136478-tony-dungy-explains-why-he-wouldnt-have-drafted-michael-sam

I am an ardent supporter for same-sex marriage, but believe the PC crowd is getting their panties in a bunch over nothing here. There were going to be pros and cons with Sam's coming out and a known con was that certain programs wouldn't want to deal with the surrounding hoopla.

Nothing wrong with anything Dungy said. He was asked a question and gave an honest answer. Two, Sam was having a documentary filmed about his coming out. How is that not a distraction?

Dungy is a good man. He was taken out of context, the only point he wanted to make is that all the baggage with press and media will make it uncomfortable for any team - aka Tim Tebow.

He is not a homo-phobe.

fisky wrote:

Why would you want to risk a distraction for a 7th round guy?

Here's the thing, Sam really isn't a "7th round guy".

Prior to his coming out there's absolutely no way Sam would have been drafted in the 7th round barring serious injury or off-field trouble. The 7th rounder didn't make the distraction, the distraction made the 7th rounder. Should Sam have been a fringe pick to begin with there's no way he would've been drafted at all.

If he hadn't come out he still would have been a 4th or maybe 5th round pick at worst. Many like to repeat the ESPN-pundit knocks on Sam "too small, etc" which do carry weight in draft decisions and therefore does hurt his stock, but most who don't closely follow the sport don't understand that such weaknesses in a players on-field evaluation don't knock a SEC Co-Defensive player of the year all the way to the bottom of the 7th round. (Watch accused rapist and crab leg-thief Jameis Winston get drafted in the first round next year)

The ESPN guys know this too, it's just that casual fans don't have a good understanding of the evaluation process and the ESPN/NFL analysts have to repeatedly discuss legitimate reasons for NFL teams to not like Michael Sam to avoid a liberal media/public outcry sh*tstorm.

There are plenty of "too small, too slow" guys in the NFL, and many of them were still drafted in the mid to upper rounds. Being undersized with poor measurables will indeed hurt ones stock, but on-field production is still a very important and often determining factor for NFL teams. Aside from the "distraction" part, Sam will be a huge draft steal if his level of play translates to the professional level.

I followed the draft pretty closely. Going into the draft, the consensus opinion I heard and read was that Sam would go in the 7th or be a UDFA (Undrafted Free Agent). I recall one guy saying he might go as high as 6th round.

Can you cite any analyst that had Sam a 4th round pick?

BTW, based on what I've read so far, Sam probably won't make the 53-man roster of the Rams unless he shows a lot of talent on special teams.

There have been many examples of guys that were outstanding college players that just couldn't make it in the NFL. Coaches are getting better at spotting these types.

If Sam was a true 4th rounder, there would have been several lousy teams that would have pounced on him in the 5th or 6th rounds just to get a steal.

As Dungy said, 'If you can make a team better, you will play in the NFL.'

I think Sam just tried to cash in on his celebrity and it might have bitten him. Bringing a circus along with him into the draft was the wrong thing to do.

Reading this thread, it is no wonder that people everywhere call runners skinny gay boys. Please stop with the nonsense. I have boys that I would like to have run track and XC some day without people calling him names.

Huh what wrote:

Is Dungy the only person that is going to make a comment about Sam that will lead to a distraction? If not, is Dungy wrong for acknowledging that others may comment on Sam, which may be a distraction to the team that drafts him? Is Dungy guilty of all other future comments by the media because he's also a member of the media? If Dungy had not said something, but then other members of the media did, creating a distraction, would Dungy's sentiments have been correct? What if Dungy said the same thing, but wasn't a member of the media? Would he be right then?

What's missing here is that Dungy has been, in the past, held up as some moral compass of the NFL. He's supported both Michael Vick and Tim Tebow....far larger potential distractions....and what he says regarding Sam seems contradictory to how he handled those situations.

Throw on top of it that Dungy has in the passed commented that he does not agree with homosexuality as a lifestyle based on faith...and reiterated it this morning....and you should be able to grasp what the issue is.

You're arguing a very different thing. Was it tone-deaf for Dungy to say what he did, given his past? Likely.

Does that mean his comments were incorrect and weren't valid strictly from a football, non-belief based, standpoint? No.

Were his comments only correct because of some self-fulfilled prophecy, like Mr. Obvious is claiming? No.

If people were arguing that Dungy shouldn't have said what he did, given his past, because people would over-react, I would agree. I think that's clear from this thread. That's not what people are arguing though.