Dungy's Hall-worthiness and more notes from Miami

	Tony Dungy has reached the playoffs nine times in 11 seasons as a head coach in the NFL. Simon Bruty/SI
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MIAMI BEACH -- If the heavily favored Colts take care of business Sunday in Super Bowl XLI, questions will immediately surface regarding coach Tony Dungy's future. Dungy, 51, considered walking away from the NFL last offseason, and has been quoted saying he didn't see himself continuing to coach much past 50.

With a Super Bowl win added to his already impressive resume, will Dungy have elevated himself to Hall of Fame worthiness? Though I have no Hall vote, the call here is yes, for the width and breadth of Dungy's coaching impact. If I were laying out the case for enshrinement, here would be the buttressing evidence behind my argument:

-- In his 11 years as a head coach, Dungy has led his team to the playoffs nine times, including his active streak of eight consecutive postseason berths (1999-2001 with Tampa Bay, Indianapolis 2002-06), which is tied for the second longest in league history behind only the nine-year run that Dallas' Tom Landry put together from 1975-83. Keep in mind that the Bucs were the laughingstocks of the NFL when Dungy was hired in 1996, and hadn't managed a winning record in the previous 13 years.

-- Including his four-year stint as Minnesota's defensive coordinator, which preceded his hiring by Tampa Bay, Dungy has taken 12 of his last 15 teams to the playoffs. With the Vikings, Dungy had the league's top-ranked defense in 1992, and his "Cover 2'' defensive scheme in Tampa Bay has been widely emulated throughout the league.

-- Dungy is a gaudy 60-20 (.750) with the Colts in the regular season. He's 114-62 (.648) overall in the regular season, and 122-70 (.655) including playoffs. That's a substantially better career winning percentage than both Marv Levy and Hank Stram, two Hall of Fame coaches. By beating the Bears, Dungy would be 9-8 in the postseason, despite starting his playoff career 2-5 with the Bucs and Colts. Since 1999, he is the NFL's winningest coach at 90-38 in the regular season.

-- Dungy's successful coaching tree and his place as one of the game's most successful and prominent black head coaches carries real weight in my book too. Four members of the staff he assembled in Tampa Bay are now head coaches in the NFL: Chicago's Lovie Smith, Kansas City's Herman Edwards, Detroit's Rod Marinelli and Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin. Dungy's career has helped foster more diversity in the NFL's coaching ranks.

-- If the Colts beat the Bears, Dungy will become just the third person to both win a Super Bowl as a player (Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XIII) and a head coach, joining Mike Ditka and Tom Flores.

Should Indianapolis win the Super Bowl and Dungy really is done after this game, he'll leave the NFL with Hall of Fame credentials. For me, the ring would be the career-capper that carries him to Canton one day.

• Did you catch how Bears coach Lovie Smith dropped into that Bill Belichick-Jedi mind trick routine at his first Super Bowl news conference Sunday night, mentioning that he perused the 18 pages of Peyton Manning material in the Colts media guide on the flight down from Chicago?

Absolutely nobody slathers on the praise of an opponent -- right before he and his team incapacitates them -- like the Patriots head coach. But 18 pages, that is impressive. That's roughly one page for every commercial Manning currently has on TV.

• Brian Urlacher said he has never heard Smith use a cuss word, and he can't even remember the last time the Bears coach yelled at anyone. That's an admirable streak Smith has going. If he was coaching the Cowboys, I wonder if it would have survived that Tony Romo botched hold of a field goal try in Seattle.

Probably not. After all, in Dallas these days, Romo is a four-letter word.

Don Banks covers pro football for SI.com.