The whole 'Dungy turned the Tampa Bay franchise around' theory misses an absolutely vital piece of information.
The Bucs were horrible for almost all of their first twenty years of existence almost exclusively because of their owner, Hugh Culverhouse. While Culverhouse was notoriously cheap, he was not stupid; despite Tampa Bay's atrocious win-loss records and poor attendance, the Bucs were one of the NFL's most profitable franchises.
Tony Dungy was in the right place at the right time: he became head coach one year after the franchise was sold to Malcolm Glazer. Dungy inherited a club that had drafted Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks the year before he arrived, and John Lynch prior to that. Those three were the cornerstones to a Tampa Bay defense that was one of the best in the history of the NFL - a D that was good enough that it should have made it to, and won multiple championships.
The fact that they did not is, in my opinion, and underachievement - and a reflection on the performance of their head coach.
The fact that they did win a year after he departed speaks volumes as well.
Right after that Dungy finds himself employed as head coach for a stacked Indianapolis team. Turn up the heat against a flu-infected opponent, pump up the artificial crowd noise, take advantage of your team President's influence on the Competition Committee, and voilà - finally, a championship.
Sorry, but dig past the career won-loss record and you find a guy who was twice in the right place at the right time, who underachieved, who did less with more than almost any other NFL head coach. Six one-and-dones in eleven playoffs? Ouch.
