Further, Dungy was in play as a possible replacement for Tim Ruskell, who resigned last month, as late as last weekend.
Dungy declined the Seahawks’ initial inquiry, according to John Wooten, chairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, which monitors the minority hiring process with the NFL.
“They called Tony about three weeks ago to see if he would seriously consider becoming their president,” Wooten told ESPN. “He told them he wanted to pray and sleep on it but the next day he called them back and said he wanted to stick with everything he was doing now. He would have been the guy, I believe, if he had wanted to do it.”
Dungy is working as a broadcaster for NBC Sports. He said about a month ago that a search firm from an NFL team had contacted him about a front-office job, but declined to name the team.
Seattle eventually pursued Dungy further, which led the team to clarify what it was offering in its pursuit of new head coach Pete Carroll.
This report comes on the heels of the Seahawks receiving criticism nationally for the way they handed the head coaching search, with some NFL observers suspecting the team’s interview with Minnesota defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, who is black, was arranged just to adhere to the Rooney Rule so the team could then offer the job to Carroll. Dungy also recommended that the Seahawks interview Frazier.
However, Seahawks CEO Tod Leiweke said it was not true that the Seahawks had made their decision when they interviewed Frazier.
“We were prepared to cast a wider net, but we knew that there was a process here,” he said. “John Wooten and I have become good friends. We’ve talked a lot. I’ve talked to Tony Dungy multiple times. I’m actually proud of my history and diversity of hiring. When it came time to hire a president of the Portland Trail Blazers (Larry Miller), we found the best man, who also represented diversity.
“So, I actually took that seriously, and Leslie Frazier and I had a phenomenal discussion. We spent some hours together in the morning, and then he came back and we watched the football game together. And I think Leslie Frazier is fantastic. And I will say this: If we hadn’t resolved issues with Pete (Carroll) last (Sunday) night to everyone’s satisfaction, Leslie Frazier was going to be at the very top of our list.”
Leiweke went on to say that if the team hadn’t hired Carroll, then it would have slowed the process down in order to interview more coaching candidates. The Seahawks also contacted the San Diego Chargers to pursue the possibility of interviewing defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, who is of Puerto Rican decent.
“We would have slowed down, and probably proceeded with the general manager interviews this week,” Leiweke said. “But we didn’t dictate the path of least resistance and just interview someone on staff. We actually went out and saw a guy who we already had very high on our list.”
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