Colts' Dungy to Make Decision on Next Season By Monday

Jan 17, 2008 — -- Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy says he still hasn't decided whether to return next season, despite reports to the contrary, but he will tell the team by Monday.

"Believe it or not, I'm going to go through the process just like I said I would," Dungy told ESPN's Chris Mortensen on Wednesday. "[Owner] Jim Irsay and I, along with [team president] Bill Polian, have have been talking about this for the last couple of days in Indianapolis. Jim wants me to open the new stadium. I'm not opposed to it, my wife is not opposed to it. I'm going to go through this process to make sure that I should do it.

"My wife and I will continue to discuss it and pray about it," he said. "We should have some type of decision by Saturday or Sunday. The first person outside my family that will know about it is Jim Irsay on Monday morning, and nobody else will know about it before Jim."

Dungy told Mortensen that a report on Profootballtalk.com saying he has decided to step down and be succeeded by assistant Jim Caldwell is not accurate.

Dungy added: "It's amazing that people don't want to believe what I said all along, that I would take this week to make my decision."

Irsay has said that he will do whatever it takes to keep Dungy on the sideline.

"Tony knows how much I want him to stay," Irsay said after Sunday's 28-24 playoff loss to the San Diego Chargers. "We'll sit down and talk this week and beyond this week. He needed to be down in Tampa some in the offseason, taking care of his family. We can work around that.

"Anything that can make it easier, and have him come back and forth in the offseason or anything like that, I think that's possible," he said.

It's the third consecutive year Dungy has contemplated retirement, and he returned each of the previous two.

But he has frequently said he doesn't consider himself an NFL "lifer" and has often acknowledged he planned to leave the game by age 50. He turned 52 in October and has committed himself to many charitable causes off the field.