Winning Isn’t Everything—Jesus Is: Tony Dungy and Sam Acho

TONY DUNGY

Tony Dungy, the first African-American head coach to win an NFL Super Bowl, learned from mentors early on in his career that football wasn’t all that mattered—what mattered was the kind of man he was and the kind of men he shaped. A trailblazer, Dungy found a way to coach that aligned with his Christian values, showing the world that you can hold strong to your beliefs and find value in who Christ says you are, rather than who the world wants you to be.

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SAM ACHO

NFL linebacker and author Sam Acho grew up in a faith-based home, forming a relationship with God early on. But as he got more integrated in his career, Sam began to separate from his foundational values, and he suffered an identity crisis—he looked happy on the outside, but he didn’t feel it on the inside. It wasn’t until he went through a reckoning of sorts that Sam realized God believed he was worth getting to know, and when he started placing value on what really matters, things started to turn around.