By PFW staff
Jan. 21, 2008

The Colts announced Monday that Tony Dungy will return for his seventh year as head coach of Indianapolis in 2008, putting an end to speculation that Dungy might be ready to call it quits.

"We'd like to announce that Tony Dungy is still our coach," owner Jim Irsay said as he took the podium at the press conference announcing Dungy's return Monday. "And we're very excited about that."

Dungy said he still loves the job and decided after thinking things over that he would like to return to coach the Colts. According to President/GM Bill Polian, Dungy will be back for as long as he'd like, with Dungy and the team reviewing his situation after the season, as per usual.

Both Irsay and Polian mentioned the need to have a transition plan in place for Dungy's successor, and the person they have decided on is assistant head coach/quarterbacks coach Jim Caldwell, who will be making head-coaching money in 2008 and beyond after signing a new contract that stipulates he will become Colts head coach whenever Dungy leaves.

Dungy prayed on his situation and, after talking it over with his family, decided he still wanted to coach and his family encouraged him to do so. Although his family is moving back to Tampa, Fla., the Colts will make a chartered jet available to him to fly to Tampa whenever he wants during the season and have given him the leeway to spend as much time as he wants in Tampa during the offseason.

However, that doesn't mean that Dungy is planning to do less than he had in the past. As Polian stated, Dungy "will be back 100 percent." Despite his raise, Caldwell will continue in his current role and Dungy will be fully in charge of the team.

It was fitting that Dungy, the first African-American head coach to win a Super Bowl, announced his decision to return on the national holiday celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.