By Movieguide® Staff
NFL legend Tony Dungy recently reflected on how the devastating death of his son actually drew him closer to God.
“2005, I’m coaching the Indianapolis Colts. Got the best team I’ve ever had. We went our first 13 games — we don’t — we’re 13 and zero. We don’t even have a close game. And everybody’s saying, ‘This is the year, the Colts are finally going to do it, they’re finally gonna win the Super Bowl,’” he said in a video for Built Different.
Dungy recalled winning another game, and the next day, getting a phone call from the Tampa Police Department where he was informed his son Jamie had died by suicide.
Related: Tony Dungy: A Journey of Perseverance, Faith and Triumph
“And it was probably the most painful thing that I’ve ever been through,” he said but added, “I kind of said, ‘You know, sometimes pain is there for a reason, and it turns you back towards the Lord.’”
Dungy and his wife reflected on praising God “when good things happen” and decided that in that moment, they still needed to “show people that I’m still gonna praise the Lord. Even when it’s tough.”
The Colts would go on to lose their next game, with Dungy saying, “We lose a son, we struggle through that, and we come back and still give God the glory. Now we lose with the best team I’ve ever had — how am I going to handle this?”
He remembered thinking, “You know what, if we stop now, people will say, ‘Yeah, you’re a convenient Christian. When everything’s good, you can handle it.’ So I said, ‘We gotta come back and show people that we really take our faith seriously.’ So we come back next year, we end up winning it all. And that was the year, after all the disappointments, we won it.”
Dungy previously spoke about the loss of his son, explaining, “The only way you can make it through [the death of a child], in my opinion, is to have that faith in God and rely on Christ.”
“Any time you lose a child, it doesn’t matter how, it’s devastating,” he continued. “You’ve got to really draw closer to the Lord. That has to be your goal.”
In a 2019 interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the NFL coach said, “You can’t beat yourself up on that. You can’t look back. The only thing you can do is be there for the rest of your kids and your family. You asked what to do when you have a tragedy like this; it pushes you away from God, or it pulls you closer.”
Dungy’s words are a reminder that even our darkest moments can lead us to stand stronger in our faith.
Read Next: How Faith Guided Legendary NFL Coach Tony Dungy’s Career
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