Tony Dungy: Good Guy or Homophobe? Both.

Tony Dungy, one hell of an NFL head coach, has retired.  And, while this has lead many a sportswriter to reflect on the obvious – his career and his accomplishments - ESPN’s LZ Granderson – a gay African American – has taken a different tact.

LZ has, by his own admission, has gone out of his way over the years to be "passively hostile” towards Dungy.  While Dungy racked up acclaim and respect as the first African American head coach to win a Super Bowl (beating another African American coach, Lovey Smith, in the process), LZ was rightly bothered by Dungy’s Christian Conservatism around gays, and his open opposition to same-sex marriage.

As a result, LZ was cautious, and even restrained, in acknowledging Dungy as anything but a successful coach, basically refusing, over the years, to sign-on to the “amen chorus” that sang Dungy’s praises as a great man, both on – AND OFF – the field.  It was the “off the field” stuff – Dungy’s conservative opposition to gays – that made LZ treat Dungy with short shrift.

But today, LZ has taken a revised view.  LZ says that he was a little short sighted:

“This is why I am apologizing for not coming to your defense. While gay marriage is an issue about equal treatment under the law, what the black community is dealing with is a crisis that threatens its very existence. As an NFL coach, you have not only talked about the crisis, you have followed your heart to do something about it — working with some of those misguided men through prison ministry as well as through mentoring programs in Indianapolis. In retirement, you plan to do even more work and will likely have a greater impact on black men's lives working full-time to help save our community than you did in your 31 years in the NFL. I'm not suggesting your work cannot and does not stretch beyond the black community, but I believe the research illustrates a greater need there.”

And wouldn’t you know it, LZ is catching big-time flak from at least one “LGBT thought leader” for even trying to acknowledge the propriety of a more balanced view regarding Dungy.  Cyd Zeigler, Jr., President of Outsports, had the following to say about all of this:

“Dungy isn’t just against gay marriage, he’s against homosexuality. He’s against one of the main aspects of my identity – of who I am – that defines every gay man, whether we want to admit it or not. And he is vocal about it. Many sports casters, coaches and players have lost their jobs because they are racist or sexist; The same standard should hold for homophobes. Instead, Granderson gives Dungy a pass because he’ll be reaching out to black men to help them set their lives straight. He’ll be using his ministry to do that: Dungy will be preaching the “good word” to help lead more black men to salvation. But it’s that same ministry that is the foundation for Dungy’s anti-gay beliefs and anti-gay political positions. To me, Granderson is saying: “I’m OK with you spreading your anti-gay interpretation of Christianity, because black men need your help more than gay men.”

It’s a complex issue, at least to me.  I just finished up writing a fictitious serial blog here on Gay.com called “Wishbone:  Living Gay in the NFL”, in which I posed a scenario that had the lead character, a closeted quarterback, suffering through all manner of issues related to his sexuality, his closet status, and the inevitable - and all-too-harmful -fallout that would ensue should he come out the closet.

Central to that premise was my acknowledgment of the pervasive homophobia in pro sports.  Tony Dungy’s views, vis-à-vis gays, are, on one hand, a perfect example of my premise.  On the other hand, Tony Dungy’s views on gays, in the larger context from which he has rooted them, are not so much threatening as they are sad and unfortunate. 

So, what to think of it all?  

Here’s the best I can come up with at this point, for me:  Dungy is a decent and flawed man.  He's a man of decent convictions, at least in terms of what he believes are the goals of those convictions and the motivations for those convictions:  namely, to make a better world for people in need of a better world.   His views – how he thinks this better world should be brought about (through a narrow and conservative Christian fundamentalism) - are, in my mind, wrong.  Dead wrong.

But he ain’t Jerry Falwell, and he ain’t Pat Robertson.   He does, by all accounts, have a decent motivation to it all.  Moreover, he does put his money where his mouth is, and spends hard work and real time trying to help people, in the ways that he thinks he can and should.  I just have a serious and basic disagreement with the philosophical underpinnings upon which he predicates it all.   But, having spent a lifetime working in social service, I can tell you that I really don’t care WHY someone helps, as long as they TRY TO HELP!

So, again, what to think of it all?

Well, I would be happy to see more Tony Dungy’s.  I would also be happy to see them shut up and just concentrate on what they can and are doing.  I would never invite him over for dinner, and I stand proudly in opposition to a lot of his views.   But if the price for having people like him use their talents to really help people who find themselves in serious need means that I gotta put up with some stupid crap that spews out of their mouths from time to time, that’s OK with me.  I deal with this shit all the time.

As long as such people are doing more good than harm, as long as they are truly helping people who need help, that’s more important, in the end.   At least that’s where my head is on this.

(Photo: Getty Images)

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A Cubs and Northwestern fan, Joe Moag is a major sports junkie, and although he still runs, he hasn't been able to dunk anything more than a donut for decades.

Unless otherwise stated, no particular sexual orientation of anyone depicted is implied or should be presumed.

Comments

[rechlo]

I entirely agree with Moag's finishing statement on this. Why do gay guys have to be so up in arms on if they are accepted right away? You know, not all jocks coming out are faced with extreme prejudice and hate. It just seems the ones who do face hardtimes, are the ones who bitch the most about it.

I may dislike Christian ideologies, but Dungy is a rare type to come across these days. He's putting forth a majority of his time and effort towards helping the TRULY needy. So, I say to Cyd Zeiglar, shove your self centered bullshit up your ass, and lay off. So your gay. AWESOME! So am I! Not everyone's going to accept it, but forcing them to accept it is NOT going to make things any better.

[Mike.]

1. Tony Dungy's teenage son committed suicide a few year ago.

2. The suicide rate among gay teens living in homophobic households is astronomical.

3. I wonder if there's a connection.

Preacher, heal thyself.