It didn't take Tony Dungy long to know he wanted to work for Jim Irsay.
Shortly after being fired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in January 2002, Dungy got back to his house to find a 10-minute voicemail from Irsay waiting for him. Irsay, in the message, told Dungy "you're the man I want to lead our team."
When Dungy called him back, Irsay laid out his vision for the Colts, which emphasized making the team a part of the city of Indianapolis.
"He wanted to bring a championship there, but do it the right way," Dungy recalled in a conversation with Jeffrey Gorman on this week's episode of High Volume. "Boy, it was really special. It only took me about 10 minutes to say, this is where I want to be, this is where I want to work. It was a great partnership from there on out."
Dungy and Gorman remembered Irsay in the podcast, which you can find on:
- Apple Podcasts
- Spotify
- YouTube
- And all other major podcast platforms
Dungy and Gorman, in the podcast, shared stories of what Irsay meant not only to the Colts and to the city of Indianapolis, but to them personally. And Dungy will forever be grateful for Irsay's support, all the way back to that voicemail in 2002.
"I couldn't imagine working for a better owner," Dungy said. "He was involved, he was there every day, he was hands on but he didn't control things. We did things as a partnership. He wanted us to be successful and he gave us every opportunity to do that but he still made it like a family."
