QUOTES FROM INDIANAPOLISCOLTS PRESS CONFERENCE
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY
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(on the team changing hotels on Saturday) "Yes, we do plan to do that. We thought it was a secret. I heard the name of the hotel was already out so it won't be that much of a secret, but we are going to leave our families and everybody here and go to a new hotel on Saturday."
(on the team getting back to practice mode and focus) "I thought our team did really well yesterday. We had some of the things you would expect with not having a lot of practice time over the last four or five days. We had a couple dropped balls that we normally don't drop and that kind of thing. But our focus, our concentration, our energy was really very good. It was maybe the best practice we've had the last three weeks from that standpoint, so I'm pretty pleased with the way they bounced back."
(on the reason for the hotel change) "We've got some wives and families and everybody here and so we want to leave that environment and get back to what we always do so the families don't have to move out. We'll just take our players and be more on the normal routine."
(on how it makes you feel when young coaches talk about coaching style) "That excites me and it is important to me. That's one of the reasons that I've really enjoyed my coaching career. It's not so much to generate the wins but it's to help young players get better and to really show coaches that there are many, many ways you can do it. You can be successful and still take good care of your players, still try to build them and make that the most important thing, not to make winning the most important thing, and do it that way. So if people are getting that message, I think it's great."
(on having players know they are cared about despite a certain coaching style) "I think that's true of players at any level. (The players) want to improve, they want to do well at their sport, but they really feel good when they know people care about them. That's the thing you try to get across, whatever your style is, that the player is important to you as a person, not just as a performer."
(on fumble Dungy had in Super Bowl XIII and if he knew Randy White played with a broken thumb) "Yes, we did know Randy White was playing with a broken thumb. That was a fun Super Bowl for me, much different than it is now. We came in and were very much under the radar compared to how it is now. We had a fun game playing against a great Cowboys team. I told Roger Staubach in the warmups that every other time we had ever played them, he always threw me an interception so I told him to make me a hero, throw me a ball today. He didn't do it, but we're in the fourth quarter, we kicked off, the ball went to Randy White who was in the wedge. He had a broken thumb and wasn't able to hang onto the ball. I actually had the ball on the fumble recovery, but Dennis Winston ended up with it. He took it away from me under the pile. We got up, we were up 35-17, they scored and onside kicked the ball right to me. I said I was going to be the hero, I'm going to close this game. It bounced right off my shoulder pad and they got it and scored again and made it 35-31, so there were about 20 seconds left and another onside kick. I didn't want to be the hero then. I said I hope they kick it to someone else and Rocky Bleier ended up getting it and we closed the game out. It was a great memory. I talked to the team a little bit about that. Even though I was a backup player, I only played there two years, only started two games, and really pretty much had a nondescript career, that anytime we have a reunion, 10 years, 20 years, 25 years, when we have the 30 year reunion, I'm going to be invited even though my role wasn't that big. I still played on a championship team and that's something that you'll never forget. That's something that I want our guys to know, that everyone is important, everyone's got a role and when you win, you feel like a star even if you were or not. "
(on if he would've been given a chance to play quarterback if his playing days had come a little later) "It's interesting, I heard all the things about the NFL being different than college ball and I thought that was the case when I got converted to safety. I understand that the guys are bigger in the NFL and I played against Bob Griese and Fran Tarkenton and I looked them right in the eye and they were playing quarterback and I wasn't. I saw different guys play that I thought I could play as well as they did. But I think at that time, especially with African-American quarterbacks, we always look at what they couldn't do and not necessarily what the
