Well deserved, Coach Dungy

With their comeback win over the Jacksonville Jaguars last night the Indianapolis Colts locked up one of the two AFC Wildcard spots. By clinching, Tony Dungy became the first coach to ever lead a team to the playoffs for 10 straight seasons. Their win the previous week tied the record for most 10-win seasons in a row, at 7, and a victory next week would set a new record for most straight 12-win seasons by any head coach. He’d set the new bar at 5.

Even more impressively, none of the coaches Dungy has passed achieved what they did during the salary cap era. To reach these pinnacles and to stay there for so long in the parity era is nearly inconceivable. It’s one thing to dominate in the manner of the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, buying your way to victory, but to do so playing the same cards everyone else is dealt is entirely different.

Most impressively of all is how Coach Dungy coaches. In a world dominated by hard-nosed, red-faced men with blood-pressure problems, Dungy never raises his voice in anger. He is a firm believer in doing things “the right way, the Lord’s way.” His words, not mine. Coach Dungy does not use profanity. In his spare time (NFL coaches have nearly none) he volunteers as a grief counselor for parents who lose children to suicide, having lost a son that way himself. He treats his players like men, like they deserve to be treated, and they respond by giving him their absolute all.

Beyond his coaching, in his spare time (NFL coaches have nearly none) Dungy volunteers as a grief counselor for parents who lose children to suicide, having lost a son that way himself. The grief of that loss still plagues him, and it probably always will. A desire to spend more time with his family is the primary reason there are huge rumors of his impending retirement after this season. A pity. I’d like to see so worthy a man set some of those records a little higher, to make them truly untouchable. Just as he already is.

Easter Vigil

Last night I got literally everything out of a church service I could ever hope to receive. I think this mass more or less marked the end of my church-hopping ways. I have finally found a spiritual home.

My priest spoke about opening our doors, and how blessed and loved each of us are. It sounds simple enough, but I don't usually get exactly what I am looking for in a service, but he hit the nail on the head. A lot of us see our weaknesses, individual and communal, and start to doubt our futures, mortal and otherwise. But I left church feeling more uplifted and hopeful than I have been in as long as I can remember.

Here are some snippets from his sermon, pasted together as best as I can recall, though undoubtedly lacking the eloquence and fire with which Father Tony delivered them.

Back in 19XX (don't recall year) Pope John-Paul II was giving a televised sermon, and his message was to open the doors of ourselves and of the Church. And as John-Paul shuffled over to the doors, as he could barely move at the time, he went to push them open and struggled against them. There was a Bishop on the other side of the door who was going to pull it open for the Pope, kinda of making it look like the door finished opening alone. But the camera was a little too slow, and we saw the bishop helping open the door.

And this was perfect, because we can't open the doors alone. And God will help you the second you begin. What more could give you to convince you that you're worthy? He gave up his Son to save you. Who are you to doubt that you are loved? Who are you to doubt that you are saved? God gave his Son to the most painful death possible for your redemption! He let He Himself made flesh die for you! Who are you to doubt Him and what He did? There is literally nothing you could do to make you unworthy. Just open your doors and accept him.

"But I'm liberal, I'm conservative, I doubt." Open the doors.
"But I'm on drugs, I'm gay, I'm an immigrant." Open the doors!
"I'm weak, I'm a sinner, a criminal." OPEN THE DOORS

I don't know what else God could possibly do to convince you that you're worthy. If you asked someone to sacrifice themselves for you, and they did it, how can you doubt? What more can He do?

I know I butchered that bad boy pretty horrifically, but hopefully you get the gist. It was nice to see something so, well, hopeful. I can be a bit of a cynic, and it was nice to get a wake-up call like that.