12/13 Analytical

In this weeks portion of Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy and Nathan Whitaker, it gets into the rebuilding process Tony had to face in order to turn the Tampa Bay Buccaneers around from a terribly run franchise into a winning one. Throughout the chapter, the author repeats the phrase, no excuses, no explanations, six times. He says this to everyone in his organization, from owner to coach to player. Everyone involved in the organization knows Tony's expectations. No matter what happens in the game, there should never be an explanation or an excuse. When Tony took over the team, he realized that there was an attitude that nothing was their fault. There would be an excuse every time something went wrong, whether it was the opponent, the refs, the playing conditions, or the coaching. Tony knew to be successful, he would have to rid this from the teams attitude, so he implemented the most famous saying of his coaching career. In essence, no excuses no explanations basically means don't make a mistake, and if you do own up to it and move forward. To win in a league as competitive as the NFL, one must play near mistake free football. It is very hard to win when there are mental mistakes being made on the field. This is where the no explanations half comes from. If there are no mistakes made, then there should never be an explanation of why something didn't work. This being said, nobody is perfect, and everybody is bound to make a mistake here and there, but the key is being able to own it. Every time something went wrong on the field, everybody had a finger pointed at another player, deeming that it was their fault over his own. This is a terrible habit to get into, especially in football. The games are long, and everyone is bound to mess up. It takes a true man to own up to that mistake and turn his attention to ma,king up for it on the next play, yet keeping it in his conciseness so it does not happen again. This is where the second half of the saying, no excuses, comes from.
Tony also used this saying in his everyday life. Raising seven kids and holding a successful coaching career is a juggling act to say the least. Tony says that he used a lot of the same tactics on his kids that he uses on his players, no excuses no explanations being one of them. With seven kids in the house at once, one can imagine there was lots of tension. This saying helped Tony teach his kids that they are family, and family doesn't fight, so there should never be an explanation that starts with, "he started it." He also instilled in them that family is everything, and a Dungy supports their family through it all. There should never be fingers pointed at one another in blame, instead there should be talks of acceptance and how to get through the disagreement. This saying is applicable to many aspects of life, from football to raising kids. Remembering this saying while going through life raises character and maturity, both things required to be successful in the NFL.