Book Review: Uncommon

National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast

Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance
by Tony Dungy with Nathan Whitaker, 260 pages, $24.99
Tyndale House Publishers | CoachDungy.com

Just a couple weeks after announcing his retirement from the coaching ranks of the National Football League, former Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy has a new book — Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance — in stores today. I received my review copy last week and went cover-to-cover right away. I can enthusiastically say it’s the most uplifting, down-to-earth life lesson book I’ve ever read. And I’ve read my fair share.

You probably remember coach Dungy’s first book, Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life, which claimed the top spot on the New York Times Best Sellers list back in August 2007. It sold over a million copies and became one of the best-selling sports-related titles in history. I expect the same from Uncommon. Actually, I expect more.

Uncommon is not a football book. Sure, you’ll find your fair share of football analogies and examples. After all, the game has been too much a part of coach Dungy’s life to have it any other way. But this book focuses on what it means to be a man of significance in a culture that is offering young men so few positive role models. You don’t need to be a young man to enjoy this, though (although that is the target market). You don’t even need to be a man. Ladies, you’ll want to check this out as well. It’s an important book for everybody who’s interested in an honest and heartfelt example of how to live a significant life — an “uncommon” life that can be far from how the world is defining success these days.

Coach Dungy has a way of taking himself off any pedestal you might think he’s on (not that he’s given anyone a reason to think he’s on a pedestal). I have to admit, I’m almost intimidated by his “goodness.” When have you heard anything negative about coach Dungy? You haven’t. It almost seems as though the guy is perfect. But he’ll be the first to tell you how far from the truth that is. Certainly he’s not shy to talk about his feelings and opinions on the many different topics we all face in everyday life (and it seems like they’re all in this book), but he does so in a way that makes you feel like there’s still hope. In Chapter 6 (”Fatherhood”) coach says:

“We’ve all come up short. That doesn’t mean you can’t gather yourself, draw a line of new commitment in the sand, and move on.”

You can apply that to fatherhood, but you can also link it to any area of your life. In Chapter 10 (”The Power of Positive Influence”) coach says:

“… you were created for a reason. It doesn’t matter what you missed or how you may have messed up; the fact is that your future is still ahead of you. What will you do with it?”

Uncommon is divided into seven sections — Develop Your Core, Love Your Family, Lift Your Friends and Others, Your Full Potential, Establish a Mission That Matters, Choose Influence Over Image, and Live Your Faith — with 32 chapters on just about every topic that affects each of us in one way or another. I dare you to find a chapter that doesn’t apply to you. But this is by no means a stern lecture. It’s kind of a guidebook for living. I can certainly visualize the father figure behind the words, but to know coach Dungy is to understand he also has a sense of humor amidst the serious issues he discusses. In Chapter 14 (”Career, Work and Money”) coach says:

“Many of us walk in the door at the end of the day carrying our frustrations with us. We know we need to learn to let it go, but that’s easier said than done. When we lose a game on a last second field goal, it’s tough for me to really be excited about playing Candy Land with the kids as soon as I get home. But I have to make myself do it. It’s not their fault that we lost, and I can’t let my job, which already takes me away from my kids too much, negatively impact the time I do have with them.”

At the end of the book is a 32-page Q&A with coach Dungy that refers back to each chapter. It’s a great way to gain a further perspective on his thoughts with specific examples from his own experiences. Coach Dungy says he considers this book to be his legacy message. One thing I can assure you. When you’re done reading it, you too will want to be “uncommon.”

Special thanks to Jessica Atteberry Quinn.

Order “Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance” from Amazon.com.