It took Bill Parcells a while to get to the Hall of Fame in part because the voters were never convinced that he was truly retired. With Tony Dungy, the possibility of the Hall of Famer taking his gold jacket back to the sideline never factored in to the thinking, and for good reason. Dungy has been unequivocal in the eight years since his retirement that he would not be returning to coaching.
For that reason, his name doesn’t come up publicly during most hiring cycles -- even though he’d be a can’t-miss, A-list candidate if/when he decided to give it another whirl. Amid fairly strong chatter in league circles that the Jaguars may make a push for Dungy, I asked him if there was any chance of an unretirement.
“I am done with that for sure,” Dungy said.
If he were inclined to return, the Jaguars would be an intriguing possibility. But it’s not going to happen, in Jacksonville or anywhere else.
Since Dungy simply isn’t wired to create buzz about himself, there’s a good chance that he has had plenty of opportunities to return to coaching since stepping away from the Colts after the 2008 season, at the age of 53. He has consistently declined, and it’s clear that he will consistently continue to decline.
