Tony Dungy knows more than most about coaching in the NFL, having won a Super Bowl with the Indianapolis Colts.
But the NBC studio analyst called out NFL team owners Friday for their lack of coaching acumen, saying most have no idea what they’re looking for when they search for a new head coach.
In an appearance on the Sports Illustrated One to One podcast, Dungy told host Conor Orr that owners are conducting these searches in the wrong way.
“You’re having teams that are interviewing 20-25 guys, these things are getting really drawn out,” Orr pointed out.
“I look at some of these big searches as the wrong way to do it,” Dungy said. “I grew up in the Pittsburgh [Steelers] system, and [owner] Dan Rooney had a philosophy, and he knew what he was looking for. And when I talk to a lot of these owners, they really don’t know what they’re looking for, so they’re just searching and trying to turn over every stone.”
Dungy won a Super Bowl with the Steelers as a defensive back in the late 1970s. He picked a real unicorn in holding up the Steelers as an example of coaching stability. The franchise has famously had only three head coaches since 1969, a fact that is so incredible it sounds made up.
Still, Dungy said Rooney, who died in 2017, had a good template for choosing a new coach.
“Here’s what Dan Rooney did for 55 years,” Dungy said. “(He said), ‘I want a young coach, because I don’t want to do this every five or six years. I want somebody who’s in their 30s who’s going to be here 20 years. We’re a cold-weather, blue-collar city, so I want defense. That’s what we’re going to hang our hat on. I want somebody who’s a great teacher and a great communicator.’
“He knew what he was looking for. So he didn’t have to interview 500 people. And I think that’s what’s missing with some of these people. They’re not sure what they’re looking for, ‘so I better talk to everybody that’s hot.'”
Dungy said some NFL execs and owners ask him for advice in coaching searches, and he always has the same answer.
“Figure out what you want. That’s what I always ask guys when they talk to me, owners and general managers,” Dungy said. “Do you want young, do you want experienced? Do you want offense, or do you want defense? Just tell me what you’re looking for and then I can give you three or four names of who might be good. When you just say, ‘Tell me who’s good, tell me who’s dynamic, that takes in a lot of territory.”