Lovie to Dallas?

Wow, could you imagine if Lovie leaves the Bears to go to Dallas? He'd be crazy IMO




Lovie talks up Dungy
(http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/bears/224533,CST-SPT-bear23.article)

January 23, 2007

BY BRAD BIGGS Staff Reporter

The last thing the Bears want heading into Super Bowl week is a distraction.

Bill Parcells provided one Monday with his surprise retirement as coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Now Lovie Smith's childhood team could be eyeballing the man who was raised in Big Sandy, Texas, 100 miles east of Dallas.

A recent broadcast report -- before Parcells' decision -- by Sports Illustrated's Peter King indicated that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is a big fan of Smith and could be interested in him if Parcells opted not to return. That possibility could develop now with Smith, the lowest-paid head coach in the NFL, due a huge raise from the Bears and signed only through 2007. Jones is the kind of maverick who, if he saw a coach he wanted badly, would put together the kind of compensation package required.

Bears president Ted Phillips announced before the game against the Detroit Lions on Christmas Eve that a contract extension was forthcoming for Smith, regardless of the team's postseason fortunes. Last week, Phillips told the Sun-Times that talks with agent Frank Bauer have been called off until the Super Bowl run is over. No doubt, the Bears' playoff success only will add to Smith's fortune.

With the Atlanta Falcons having handed Bobby Petrino a four-year deal worth $4.8 million annually -- and with Jones likely to make a splash, whether it involves Smith or not -- the price for a coach with consecutive division titles has skyrocketed beyond the imagination of Phillips, who passed on an opportunity to extend Smith in March for perhaps double his $1.35 million salary. That won't even be in the ballpark this time around.

''We're losing one of our all-time great coaches in our profession,'' Smith said of Parcells. ''He's meant so much, to not only the Cowboys and Giants and Patriots and Jets, teams that he coached, but for the NFL in general.

''For him, though, it's always good when you see a coach that decides that he's had enough, a guy that goes out on his own terms, and guys like Bill Parcells should get an opportunity to do that.''

The coach whom Smith talked about most, though, was his good friend Tony Dungy, who gave Smith his first job in the NFL, hiring him as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' linebackers coach in 1996.

After what Smith called a good night's sleep -- crashing between 2 and 3 a.m. Monday after the NFC Championship Game victory and getting up at 5 -- one of the first things he did was have a talk with Dungy, now coach of the Indianapolis Colts, the Bears' Super Bowl opponent.

''I heard excitement in his voice right away -- when I finally let him speak a little bit,'' Smith said. ''My dream was for Tony to get to the Super Bowl.''

A prevailing story line moving toward the Feb. 4 meeting in Miami will be how Smith and Dungy are the first African-American head coaches to reach this point, meaning one will join former Washington Redskins quarterback Doug Williams as a trail blazer of sorts. Williams became the first -- and only to this point -- black quarterback to win a Super Bowl in 1988.

''That day is coming someday,'' Smith said when asked if a coach's skin color eventually will be immaterial. ''Of course, we're talking about it now. It's not here now. In years to come it won't be talked about, and I'll look forward to that day.''

It was a good day for the Dungy coaching tree as Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Mike Tomlin was introduced as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, just a year after leaving the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Tampa-2 defense and the men who run it never have been more in vogue, and it all comes from Dungy, who reached the Super Bowl after losing in two previous conference title games.

''Our styles are similar as far as we try to treat the players like men and expect them to behave that way,'' Smith said. ''There is a certain standard that we have for them. As you look to young coaches coming in the ranks, a lot of us have a picture of how a coach is supposed to be, how he is supposed to act, and what Tony showed me is you don't have to act that way. Be yourself and just believe in what you know and just stay with that through the storms, and you can get the job accomplished.

''When I first interviewed with him, he talked about wanting to get teachers on his staff. Instead of 'coach,' he used the word 'teacher.' And that's what I've tried to do. We have an excellent group of teachers on our staff.''

Losing to his friend wouldn't make the experience any easier, and Smith's passion -- even if he was fatigued from a late night that included reviewing the predictions by local pundits for the game against the New Orleans Saints -- never has been more evident.

''Couldn't believe that some of our beat writers picked the Saints to beat us,'' he said. ''You know who you are.''

Smith talked about a scar he still has as the defensive coordinator of the 2001 St. Louis Rams, who lost to the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. He smiled from start to finish of a 15-minute news conference, even when asked about the Colts being seven-point favorites.

''You look at what all the Colts bring to the table, I could see why [oddsmakers] would make us underdogs,'' he said. ''But we've been in that role before, and our guys like the underdog role. I wouldn't bet against the Bears if I were a betting man.''

It's easy to see why Jerry Jones might like the guy.

bbiggs@suntimes.com

 

I could see him do it too because hes very much underpaid for the succes he's had.
Maybe Lovie to the 'Boys
Tuna to the Bears