That Tony Dungy has proven to be a good and decent human being is not breaking news.
But his latest foray into the community stemmed from a simple act of honesty.
In February, Dungy backed into a car in a church parking lot. He left a note on the windshield, since the driver wasn’t around.
“I scraped your car backing in. So Sorry. Please call me if we don’t see you after church,” the note said, with his name and phone number attached.
Lori Farmer, the owner of the red Mazda, thought somebody was messing with her.
“I didn’t see anything,” she said, via the Tampa Bay Times. “All the dings kind of blended together.”
Dungy insisted on paying for any damages, and she insisted she didn’t see any, so they came up with a compromise, that he would visit Pride Elementary, where she taught.
He came by Thursday, and talked to a group of third-, fourth- and fifth- graders about the importance of education, and being themselves, posing for pictures with anyone who wanted one.
“He has proven that he has great character and integrity,” Pride principal Cindy Land said. “He . . . kept his word. This is precisely what our students need to learn from in our community.”
Both of Dungy’s parents were teachers, and he said the visit was a small price to pay in lieu of body work.
“It was a win-win situation for me,” he said. “It was something I knew I would enjoy and also help them out.
“I understand how getting people in to help the teacher in the school day is really important. It was fun doing it. I’m sorry I had to run into her car to facilitate it.”
There’s no word whether the church is now auctioning off parking places next to Dungy as a fundraiser.