To be certain, Helms was, upon his retirement from workplace in 2001, “the last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country,” as the nice Washington Post political columnist David S. Broder wrote. Terry based antiabortion group Operation Rescue, which distributed a “wanted” poster for a Florida abortion doctor, David Gunn, at a rally the summer season earlier than Gunn was assassinated in 1993, shot 3 times within the again outdoors his Florida clinic. And Trump did what antiabortion Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush earlier than him had been petrified of doing due to the occasion’s extremist undercurrents: He spoke live at the annual march.

Yet Dungy went forward together with his talking engagement, utilizing his athletic celeb coupled together with his religiosity as deodorant for a theme of intolerance.

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That got here days after a tweet by Dungy for which he was rightfully and soundly denounced, shamed into apologizing and deleting his phrases. It had amplified to Dungy’s almost 1 million followers a harmful deceit of reactionaries concerning the lengths faculties are supposedly going to accommodate scholar identification variations — and about the necessity to halt them. The well-proven fabrication was finally geared toward disobliging the requirements of LGBTQ children, and even these of children of coloration who must have the chance to discover their histories and have them realized by others. It was a slap within the face to Tampa Bay linebacker Carl Nassib, whom the league has celebrated since he revealed he is gay, turning into the primary energetic NFL participant to take action.

An individual at NBC instructed me Monday that Dungy apologized to the “Football Night in America” group, for which he’s a face. And the community reminded in a memo to employees that “… NBC Sports does not support or condone the views expressed in the tweet and we have made that clear to Tony. Our company has long and proudly supported LGBTQ+ rights and works hard to ensure that all of our employees are seen, acknowledged, recognized and respected.”

Whether the league did the identical — or reacted because it did within the wake of Colin Kaepernick’s protest, when it decreed fines for any group with a participant on the sector who didn’t stand for the nationwide anthem — I don’t know. The league didn’t reply my e-mail asking for clarification on the place it stood with Dungy’s associations.

Dungy posted his remorse Saturday earlier than collaborating in NBC’s playoff broadcast: “This past week I posted a tweet that I subsequently deleted. I issued an apology but not everyone saw it. So I am reposting my apology here. As a Christian I want to be a force for love to everyone. A force for healing and reconciliation — not for animosity.”

He tweeted his authentic mea culpa Wednesday. It learn: “I saw a tweet [Tuesday] and I responded to it in the wrong way. As a Christian I should speak in love and in ways that are caring and helpful. I failed to do that and I am deeply sorry.”

I’m not sure what “responded to it in the wrong way” means. But it didn’t cease Dungy from accepting his second to face earlier than anti-abortionists on a podium frequented by white supremacists and zealots. And from there he even discovered the gall to invoke the current story of Damar Hamlin, the Buffalo Bills participant who’s recovering after suffering cardiac arrest during a game, as some form of justification for repealing a girl’s proper to decide on to finish a being pregnant.

“People wanted to see that life saved,” Dungy instructed the March for Life flock, referring to Hamlin. “These are people who aren’t necessarily religious; they got together and called on God. Well, that should be encouraging us because that’s exactly why we’re here. Because every day in this country, innocent lives are at stake. The only difference is they don’t belong to a famous athlete, and they’re not seen on national TV.”

I do know there are some Black head coach aspirants within the NFL who would favor Dungy use this power and his gravitas to assist their discrimination lawsuit towards the league’s hiring practices, possibly aiding the following Black Hall of Fame coach. But aside from phrases, he hasn’t joined their trigger in motion as he has fights towards abortion and LGBTQ folks.

It isn’t my intent to criticize religiosity, although Dungy has used his to pan non-Christian religions and folks whom his model of Christianity rejects. He is an evangelical Christian who has been an outspoken opponent not simply of abortion however same-sex marriage, which he campaigned against in Indiana when he was coach of the Colts, and towards homosexual folks typically, together with those that might toil as skilled athletes. He infamously said he wouldn’t have Michael Sam, the would-be first brazenly homosexual participant within the NFL, in his locker room.

This is all one more reminder that sports activities could be, has been and infrequently continues to be an agent for the alternative of which it’s celebrated: regression, not progress. Dungy isn’t within the sports activities world’s ballyhooed vanguard of social change irrespective of his historic achievement as the primary Black head coach to lead a team to a Super Bowl championship.

In truth, in March he’s scheduled to remain on model as a speaker at an all-men’s conference called Men’s Advance 2023. It’s headed by evangelical Christian pastor Andrew Wommack, who argued two years ago that “homosexuality is three times worse than smoking. We ought to put a label across their forehead: ‘This can be hazardous to your health.’ ”

Dungy ought to know going via with that look could possibly be hazardous to his profession.