Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Reading: Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy (pgs. 215-240)

In the next section of Quiet Strength, by Tony Dungy, Dungy describes some exciting moments in his career as a head coach.  In chapter eighteen, Dungy describes one of the greatest comeback games in history.  His Indianapolis Colts were playing his former team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, on Monday Night Football.  They were down by a huge margin in the game.  Amazingly, they started to come back in the second half of the game.  The team kept believing and persevering in the game.  Eventually, the Colts forced overtime and won the game in the end in one of the greatest comebacks in NFL history.  The victory was especially sweet for Dungy as it came on his birthday and also against his former team. 

In chapter seventeen, Dungy describes a few excellent seasons by the Colts.  The Colts had several years of winning many games and making the playoffs.  However, they would always be stopped a few steps short, notably by their nemesis, the New England Patriots.  They seemed to choke in the playoffs as portrayed by the media.  Nevertheless, Dungy took both the positives and the disappointments with him as he continued to work to find a true championship caliber football team.

After reading this section of reading, I relate closest to Dungy as a Colts fan myself.  I lived through some of the painful playoff losses that Dungy describes in his book.  The Colts had many excellent seasons, but they simply could not break through to the championship game until later.  I always know that it is tough to do so well in a sport during the regular portion of the season and come up short when it really matters.  Specifically, I had trouble with this problem in wrestling.  I won many matches during the regular season.  However, during the tournaments, I lost many close matches that I knew I was easily capable of winning.  Overall, I agree with Dungy's disappointments as I have had my fair share of despairs in my life as well.

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