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Here’s the question: Does the team that prays together get arraigned together?

And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts of the Apostles 16:31, King James Version)

A few football seasons ago I discovered that if a football coach fervently believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, his whole team shalt not have been saved. Well, at least not according to the acts of his linebackers.

Tony Dungy was the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, winners of  the 2007 Super Bowl. Leading up to the big game, much of the buzz was about the fact that Tony is an African American. Would he be the first black coach to win the Super Bowl? (Yes.) Some of the buzz was also about Tony being an outspoken Christian. Why this mattered more than if he were, say, an outspoken vegetarian, I don’t know.

And outspoken Tony was. During his victory speech he thanked “the Lord.” To my recollection, that was a first for an NFL coach. What, pray tell, does “the Lord,” have to do with an entertainment event of the sports variety?

Many people viewed Dungy’s candid religiosity as a good thing. Our nation needs more upright role models, they stated or implied. And if Dungy is a Christian, ipso facto, he exerts a positive influence on those around him. Right?

In the month following his Super Bowl victory, Tony Dungy was the keynote speaker at the Indiana Family Institute, a right-wing religious group. He openly denounced gay marriage. Coincidentally, an amendment to ban gay marriage was before the state legislature. Tony and the group hoped to sway the vote. In a sense, Tony used his recent boost in popularity for a political purpose.

Does that make him a good or bad role model? I suppose the answer to that question might be subjective, depending on whether or not you support banning gay marriage.

How do we judge whether or not a person is a good role model and thus has a positive influence on others? Certainly what a person says is not enough. It is all too easy to say one thing and to do and even encourage another.

The big NFL news during the 2007 off-season was a get-tough policy on bad-behaving players. One of the players in question was “Pacman” Jones of the Tennessee Titans. Directly pertaining to this issue, I encountered statistics compiled by the San Diego Union Tribute on arrest citations for matters more serious than speeding violations. It covered the entire NFL league going back a number of years. I thought the statistics might provide a better way of determining how good a role model coach Dungy really is.

Since the day Tony Dungy became head coach of the Indianapolis Colts (January 22, 2002) through his Super Bowl victory, there had been 230 “legal incidents” involving NFL players. That’s an average of 7.2 per team. Not surprisingly, thanks in part to Pacman, the Tennessee Titans had more than double the average — 15.

My team, the New England Patriots (I was born in Massachusetts), had a surprising total. You might say that the Patriots’ coach, Bill Belichick, is a bit of an anti-Dungy. He comes across as calculating and cold. All business. Under his leadership, the Patriots had just 3 arrests. That’s less than half the NFL average. As surprisingly, for two out of the three cases, the team quickly released the player in question after the problematic behavior had been verified. Apparently, the Patriots have been ahead of the curve in getting tough on unruly players.

How did Dungy’s Colts fare? It seems his squeaky-clean, public persona didn’t rub off on his players. They had 11 incidents over the same time period, roughly half again more than the average. And not one of players charged with breaking the law was released from the team.

Seems an outspoken vegetarian could have done as well building the moral fiber of the players.

Rather than group statistics and religious affiliation, or lack thereof, I believe in judging people by the sum total of their deeds.  Tony Dungy was a Christian?  Big deal.  That is a nearly empty designation.  Please tell me more about the guy if you want me to be impressed by his moral character.

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