Super game plans

It wasn't the lack of a good rivalry, given that the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears, headquartered a mere 188 miles apart, share an overlapping geographic fan base in the upper Midwest. Nor was it the lack of star power, as the matchup featured several marquee players and likely future Hall-of-Famers on both sides.

Missing instead in the weeks before the game was the usual trash-talking, saber-rattling and pre-game partying that has dominated the sports pages ever since Joe Namath guaranteed a Jets win over the then-Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III back in 1969.

That more civil run-up can largely be credited to the character of Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith, respective head coaches of the Colts and Bears.

The media paid much attention to the fact that these men were the first two African-American head coaches to lead teams to the National Football League championship. In a sports world that historically has been slow to exorcise the lingering ghosts of racism, that feat alone is worthy of our applause.

But another angle also came to the fore: These two men, who share a mutual longstanding friendship and respect, also have in common a mild-mannered leadership style quite atypical of field generals in this physical and aggressive sport. Neither the calmly assertive Dungy nor the phlegmatic Smith ever raises his voice or uses profanity in dealing with his players.

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Their motivation is even more remarkable: Both Dungy and Smith are devoutly Christian men with strong family values who wear their faith proudly on their sleeves, who rank faith and family far ahead of football in their lists of life's priorities. They don't thump their Bibles, but they do give God the glory and are not afraid to grant him proper public mention.

"God is the center of my life," and that "controls all that I do," Smith told the media days before the game. "I hope I don't have to spend my time telling the players I'm a Christian. I hope they see it in my life every day."

After Indianapolis won and Dungy was handed the Lombardi Trophy, he stated on national television that he and Smith were "not only the first two African-Americans, but Christian coaches showing that you can win doing it the Lord's way. And we're more proud of that."

Amid doping scandals, instances of poor sportsmanship, discontented stars with lucrative contracts and overachievers with attitudes, the world of competitive sports seems to offer more poor examples than role models. For every Peyton Manning, there are a half-dozen Tank Johnsons or Terrell Owenses. And for all the firebrand coaches, like Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick, there are too few exemplars of class, like Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith.

We could stand to take a page from their playbooks and adopt their virtues in our own daily lives.

God's definition of success is not ours. These Christian gentlemen may or may not have prayed to win, but surely they both prayed that their players might perform to the best of their ability.

Our faith is not a guarantee against loss or failure. It is a means by which we communicate with God and seek always to do his will. And that is how we define success.

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