When Dungy first joined NBC in 2009, he apparently wasn’t convinced broadcasting was for him. Dungy said he almost passed on NBC’s offer. He didn’t have a radio show or a coach’s show, and he said broadcasting “just wasn’t me.” His wife encouraged him to consider it because she thought he would miss football if he stopped cold turkey. 

He ended up staying for 17 seasons. And in February, one of his final NBC assignments took him somewhere few football broadcasts ever had: Alcatraz Island, an old prison in San Francisco Bay. Dungy joined Rodney Harrison and Jac Collinsworth for NBC’s first live broadcast from the former prison, looking back on the Super Bowls and moments that shaped his football life. He could not have known then that his long run with NBC was about to end. Six months after that chapter closed, Dungy, now 70, has revealed where his next one will begin.

“Big news coming! As the NFL season starts, I wanted to let you all know that I’m starting a new adventure called Road to Sunday,” Dungy wrote on X on September 9. “So excited to tell you about it. Make sure you follow @roadtosunday1 here on X and @roadtosundayfootball on Instagram. We’ll be posting updates there very soon.” And this time, he will be building the next chapter himself.

Dungy has not yet revealed exactly what Road to Sunday will become, and that is worth keeping in mind. The teaser offers glimpses of him interacting with players and taking part in lifestyle-focused moments, including a swing on the golf course, but there is no official format, release schedule or distribution plan yet. For now, it is safest to call it a new football-focused venture rather than another television job.

That distinction could matter because Dungy has spent most of his career doing more than simply talking about football. He played three NFL seasons, then climbed from assistant coach to defensive coordinator before getting his first head-coaching job with Tampa Bay in 1996. He later led Indianapolis to Super Bowl XLI, becoming the first Black head coach to win the Super Bowl.

But the part of Dungy’s coaching career that may matter most to Road to Sunday is less obvious than the rings and win totals. He built his reputation as a teacher. Influenced by Chuck Noll, Dungy said he wanted to be a “teacher” rather than a “yeller,” believing a coach’s job was to make his players better.

That philosophy could translate naturally if the player-focused glimpses in the teaser are any indication. Dungy spent years learning how athletes think, respond to pressure and carry themselves away from the statistics. When he evaluated prospects in Tampa Bay, he paid attention to details such as how they handled interviews, whether they were punctual and how they treated people, clues he believed could tell him something about the person behind the player.

And his football résumé gives him a perspective few interviewers can match. Dungy has been an NFL player, assistant coach, defensive coordinator, head coach, Super Bowl winner and national television analyst. He finished his coaching career with a 148–79 overall record and 139–69 mark in the regular season, while taking 11 of his 13 teams to the playoffs. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016.

His Tampa Bay years offer perhaps the clearest example of what he brought to football. The Buccaneers had endured 12 double-digit-loss seasons in the previous 13 years before Dungy arrived. By 1997, they were 10–6 and back in the playoffs. Two years later, Dungy led them to an 11–5 record and their first division title since 1981.

That Tampa Bay chapter also gives Road to Sunday an unexpected connection to Dungy’s former NBC replacement. Mike Tomlin, who joined NBC’s Football Night in America this season, was Dungy’s defensive backs coach in Tampa Bay in 2001. When Tomlin arrived, Dungy specifically described his new assistants as people who “know the game” but also “know how to motivate and how to teach.”

Tomlin is now the one occupying Dungy’s old NBC chair. After 19 seasons as Pittsburgh’s head coach, he joined Football Night in America as a studio analyst, with NBC selling his “just-off-the-sideline perspective” as a fresh voice for its NFL coverage.

That does not mean NBC decided Tomlin was simply better suited for the job than Dungy. The network was changing the show itself. Several FNIA personalities had contracts expire after Super Bowl LX, and reporting at the time described plans for a “new-look” program with a smaller cast. NBC has since moved FNIA on-site for games such as the Hall of Fame Game, with Maria Taylor hosting alongside Jason Garrett, Devin McCourty and Mike Florio, while Tomlin joined as the former head coach bringing a recent sideline perspective.

That explains why Dungy’s departure should not necessarily be read as a verdict on his 17 years at NBC. Dungy himself said the news was “disappointing,” but left the door open to football, broadcasting or community work when he announced his exit in March. Now, six months later, he has chosen football and broadcasting again, only this time without returning to the NBC desk.