Dungy overcomes tragedy to seek his first Super Bowl title

MIAMI -- After his brother died in an auto accident last September, Reggie Wayne returned to the Indianapolis Colts to find Tony Dungy waiting to console him -- as only a man who has been through his own personal tragedies can do.\n"I was at the lowest point," Wayne recalled last week. "Just to hear it from someone who has been through it helps you a lot. Coach Dungy is a strong man -- a strong soul. It was huge for me."\nDungy's tragedy came 13 months ago -- the suicide of his 18-year-old son James.\nA season later, he's coaching in the Super Bowl, using the strength that sustained him through his terrible loss to try to get the Colts their first NFL title in 36 years.\nThe television cameras never catch him shouting at an official or cursing under his breath. His priorities are his family and his faith. He's also worked hard to advance minority hiring in the NFL, a cause that is clearly in the spotlight this week and was last week, too.\nDungy is hardly the prototypical coach -- he's usually stoic on the sideline, as he had been in dealing with his son's death. After the Colts beat New England to win the AFC championship, he pointedly noted that coaches don't have to encourage profanity and trash-talking to succeed.\nDungy's teams have missed the playoffs only once since 1997. In Indianapolis, he went from a defensive powerhouse to a strong offense and succeeded with Manning, Marvin Harrison and Edgerrin James.\nEarly in his career in Indianapolis, Dungy's teams lacked playoff success; the Colts were blown out in their first postseason game with Dungy at the helm. Where his predecessor, Jim Mora, might have blown-up after a horrible game like that one, Dungy put it aside. \nThat is Dungy, whose many interests beyond pro football can help reduce the sting of a crushing playoff defeat. A deeply religious man, but one who refrains from using his position to push his beliefs, he acknowledges: "I am certainly aware that there is life outside of football."\nThat was made abundantly clear on Dec. 22, 2005, when James Dungy was found dead in his Tampa apartment.\nTwo weeks later, Dungy was back coaching, graciously thanking the millions of well-wishers, getting himself involved in an effort to prevent teenage suicide and suggesting that it was harder on his wife, Lauren, because he had football as an outlet.\nEven his oldest friends were amazed at his calm.\n"He stood above his son's casket with so much control that I told him after the funeral, 'I don't know how you do it,'" recalled Peter May, who has known him since the seventh grade. "He was the best athlete, the smartest kid and the person with the most manners when we were growing up. But in my whole life, I've never been more impressed with him than I was on that sad day."\nDungy doesn't talk about how tragedy has changed him. Or at least not often.\n"I think God gives you tests to see if you're going to stay true to what you believe and stay faithful," he said last week. "For me, that's what it was, having to continue to believe. Sometimes when you have disappointments it makes that final destination that much sweeter"