Post B

When I was reading my book Quiet Strength Tony Dungy describes his high school years as an athlete in football, and in basketball. In particular he describes his senior year as the quarterback, and only African American captain on his football team. I would like to share with you a passage that stood out to me. “One of my closest buddies was Booby Burton, a receiver. The two of us had been starters on the varsity team since our sophomore season. Coach Driscoll’s policy was for the team to vote for the following year’s captains at the end of the season. That year, I was elected as a team captain. Bobby wasn’t. I just couldn’t understand this. I could only think of one explanation: for some reason the school didn’t want two black captains” (pg 22-23). When Dungy shares this with the reader it made me very sad, and sick to my stomach. Dungy went to a predominately white junior high school, and Parkside’s football team (the high school he attended) had never had two black captains. In my opinion Bobby did not get to be captain because of his skin color, and this really bothered Tony. This event bothered him so much that he ended up quitting football his senior year, and as did all the African Americans on his team. Dungy felt like he needed to take a stand, and he felt that he needed to make a statement. Tony ended up rejoining the football team a few months later after talking with coach.