Tony Dungy inspires Liberty students to strive for eternal significance, not success, in Convocation appearance

In front of a packed Vines Center audience of Liberty University students and College for a Weekend (CFAW) guests at Friday morning’s Convocation, acclaimed football analyst and former NFL coach and player Tony Dungy spoke on the difference between earthly success and eternal significance, and how believers ought to strive to walk the path laid out by God to achieve the latter.

Dungy spent 13 years as a head coach in the NFL with tenures with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Indianapolis Colts, including a Super Bowl XLI victory in 2006 with Indianapolis. He is a two-time NFL Coach of the Year (1997 and 2005) and currently works as an analyst on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” broadcasts. He is also a New York Times bestselling author, with multiple books on leadership, family, and living the Christian life.

He was introduced through a video from James Brown, a fellow NFL broadcaster and a Convocation guest last year, who described Dungy as “one of the most influential voices in society.”

Dungy said he was excited to visit Liberty to speak to students who are in a similar life stage as his 17-year-old son. Much like the Liberty and CFAW students in attendance, Dungy’s son has been in the midst of answering many questions regarding college, his career, and his life path.

“I’m here to tell you today that those are not the (only) questions you need to be focusing on,” Dungy said. “The biggest decision that you make in your lives will not be what you’re going to do; it will be how you’re going to live. Are you going to live by the world’s standards or by God’s standard? The answer to that question … will answer a lot of those other questions.”

The world’s standard of a good life revolves around earthly success, Dungy explained, with the goals of being at the top of one’s industry, making certain amounts of money, and having an impressive résumé. By this thinking, Dungy would be considered very successful, but he said he felt unfulfilled by the end of his career in the NFL.

“Most people would look back on my career and say, ‘Tony, you were pretty successful. You were the head coach of two different NFL teams, so you got to the top of your profession; you made over $20 million coaching in your career, so you did well financially; you won a Super Bowl and were named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, so you’ve got that on your résumé. You were a success,’” Dungy said. “But I can tell you this: when you retire and look back on things, you’re going to ask yourself, as I did, ‘Did it really matter? What did I do that made a difference? Did I do anything significant?’”

Dungy shared multiples passages, mainly from the book of Matthew, that highlight the life that believers ought to lead. He cited Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6, which instructs His followers to “seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously,” which will then allow God to “give you everything you need.”

“If you decide you’re going to seek God’s Kingdom, it’s going to look a little different,” he said. “You’re going to have to do (life and school) in a different way from the people around you. Why is that? Because most of the people around you will be worried about worldly success. If you decide that you are going to walk and live for Christ, you will be following a narrow path, not the crowd and not doing the things that everyone else is doing.”

After sharing some life anecdotes about walking the narrow path that honors God — including him declining opportunities to cheat in college or use insider information about an opponent’s trick play in the NFL — Dungy spoke on how his coaching philosophy didn’t always open doors in the NFL. His dedication to servant leadership, not cursing or yelling as much as other coaches were known to do, and not making winning games a higher priority than his family life all turned some NFL owners or general managers away. However, when he met Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Joel Glazer, these qualities all made Dungy a top coaching candidate in Glazer’s eyes, and Dungy was hired.

Walking the narrow path and living a life of heavenly significance involves being a Christian at all times and in all places, Dungy said, and he quoted his friend, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Senior Pastor Dr. Tony Evans.

“Dr. Evans told us this once: ‘You have to be a Christian all the time. You can’t be a Christian just when it’s convenient, you can’t be a Christian just in certain settings; if you really want to represent the Lord and walk on that narrow road, you have to be a Christian all the time,’” Dungy recalled. “That has been my MO (modus operandi) for the last 40 years.”

Life is a race, he said in citing 1 Corinthians 9:24-25, and some people run the race to win prizes that will fade away in time. Instead, Christians are called to run a race toward eternal significance.

“My advice to you today is, yes, run to win, but run the right race,” he said in conclusion. “Win the right race. Go after significance and not success.”