”Tony has meant a great deal to the National Football League. He has been a great head coach and a person who always did things for the betterment of the league. He always made the players well aware of what was important, to play in the league and how you conducted yourself. He was also a guy who was always thought about giving young coaches opportunities. I think if you look at his tree and his legacy, it will be filled with a bunch of guys that were given their first chances. He always felt that way even when he was coming out of college in 1977, when we first met. His whole mindset was to give guys opportunities if he was going to be a coach. He’d give guys chances that maybe other people wouldn’t.

“He was always about coaching his way. He had a certain style. At times people looked at his style, like maybe he wasn’t forceful enough because he wasn’t demonstrative or anything like that. He was always a guy who felt that he was a teacher first and foremost. He comes from a family of teachers. He was a big proponent of teaching fundamentals and techniques and being smart, not beating yourself, and helping the players become better football players and better men.

“His legacy as a coach will take care of itself, but his biggest legacy will be all the people around the country who he’s inspired to be better and to deal with some of life’s tragedies in a manner that gives people a lot of strength. What he went through with his son and how he handled it, was something that says a lot about Tony, his faith and what he stands for. His faith has always probably been the most important thing with how he lived his life, whether being a football coach, a father or a husband. It was always above reproach.

“The league will miss him, but obviously never forget him because of what he’s done and the standards that he’s set, not only for coaches, but especially for black coaches. He’s a guy that won a Super Bowl. I think he always looks back at the guys before him, that gave him the opportunity and now he’s set up a standard for other guys to follow. You can’t say, ‘well, I can do this or I can’t do that,’ because Tony was a big proponent on giving guys opportunities and making sure he gave them the opportunity to become better.

“Whatever Tony decides to do, it’ll be helping people. That’s his M.O. He’s always done it that way. He’s had a wonderful career as a player and a coach in this league. You don’t replace Tony Dungy as a man. You may replace the job that he did as coach, but you don’t replace Tony Dungy as a man. He’s touched a lot of people’s lives outside of football and that’s his whole ideal. He had a platform and he used it in a manner to make a difference.”