Tony Dungy got himself into a lot of hot water this week, and on Saturday, the Hall of Fame coach and NBC Sports analyst finally decided to apologize. The only problem was that the apology might have been just as pathetic as the incident he had to apologize for.
On Wednesday, Dungy shared a frequently debunked and, frankly, gross myth about transgender people. Republicans and conservatives have routinely shared tall tales about schools having litter boxes in classrooms for students who “identify as cats.” Despite the fact that this absurdly idiotic talking point is frequently proven incorrect, Dungy shared the harmful myth anyway. He later deleted the tweet but the damage was done.
On Saturday afternoon, Dungy took to Twitter and issued an apology.
“This past week I posted a tweet that I subsequently deleted,” Dungy wrote. “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.”
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. pic.twitter.com/esew5wjUyD
— Tony Dungy (@TonyDungy) January 21, 2023
You may note the careless inclusion of what sure looks like a written apology, in text-message form, from… someone else.
Dungy still appeared on the NBC Pregame Show prior to the Divisional Playoff Game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Jacksonville Jaguars.
As you can probably guess, Tony Dungy and his pathetic apology attempt were panned and skewered on Twitter.
My brother in Christ, what you said was both untrue and unhinged. This is a non-apology.
— Anthony Michael Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) January 21, 2023
You might want to also mention that it was untrue
— Ben Ross (@BenRossTweets) January 21, 2023
This is not an apology. No mention of the LGBT community he was targeting. No distancing from the content of his tweet. "Sorry I shared my actual, long-held anti-LGBT beliefs in a grotesque way" is not an apology. https://t.co/rJHlHdFygj
— Cyd Zeigler (@CydZeigler) January 21, 2023
https://twitter.com/Forester932/status/1616896653591744512
Yo, not here to argue the issue at hand.
Tweeting a screenshot of a received grey iMessage with literal quotations around it as an apology is more disrespectful than almost anything I’ve ever seen.
My man couldn’t copy and paste it into the Notes App 🤣 https://t.co/QCNcxIsaxm
— Nathaniel Behar (@natebehar11) January 21, 2023
Sometimes, apologies really go a long way in displaying how somebody isn’t all that sorry https://t.co/4upbSirRiq
— Carter Rodriguez (@Carter_Shade) January 21, 2023
He posted an apology tweet off of a screen shotted text someone else sent him hahahaha https://t.co/2KGsuto9Ia
— Nate Geary (@NateGearySports) January 21, 2023
Is that a screenshot of a text of someone telling him what to say? https://t.co/pV5XQi485N
— Aaron Oster (@TheAOster) January 21, 2023
You would not know from reading this apology that he’d shared a debunked anti-LGBTQ conspiracy theory.
My NBC News colleagues did a fine job of chronicling the origins of the litter box myth in this article several months ago: https://t.co/n5Pex2h0ct https://t.co/anfnJYR3BH
— Mike Hixenbaugh (@Mike_Hixenbaugh) January 21, 2023
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022