I’m not giving away state secrets when I say that everything connected with this game gets blown out of proportion. And it could be that was the case with the timing of the Colts’ arrival in the host city. Most teams come down on Sunday afternoon, as the Bears did. But Dungy brought his team in late Monday instead. Then it showed up late for Tuesday’s Media Day, the biggest press session of them all.

So what was the deal, Tony?

“We thought being at home with their families, going to church on Sunday, was more important than getting here a day early,” he said.

Dungy talks about his faith a lot and leaves no doubt that it is the most important aspect of his life. Whether you ask him about it or not, he’s going to insert it into the conversation every five minutes or so, and he volunteers that when he retires, one of the things he wants to do is start a ministry.

“As great as this is,” he said of being at the Super Bowl, “you can’t look at this as the end-all and be-all.”

What is, then? “My Christian faith.”

Dungy was raised by educators, and he says the values his parents instilled in him are what drives him. He’s proud that he and his former assistant Lovie Smith, the Bears’ coach, are the first African-Americans to coach in the Super Bowl, just as he’s proud of his other assistants who have gone on to head-coaching jobs, including Herm Edwards, Mike Tomlin and Rod Marinelli.

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They’re all like Dungy — men high on character and low on screaming and shouting. Dungy virtually never loses his temper on the field or in practice. He coaches, he says, the way he would want to be coached, so he gives his players the information and direction they need to succeed. Asked when he last lost his temper, he says it was when two players failed to show up for an appearance at a grammar school, where they were supposed to read with the kids and sign autographs.

You have to admire a man who is angered by a player disappointing some kids but not by a player blowing an assignment. You also have to admire the way he manages to have a family life and a team that’s one win away from a championship. And you have to marvel at the faith that allowed him to carry on after his son took his own life last year — an issue Dungy declined to discuss.

He’s made the league a better place just by being part of it, just as Marv Levy did during his career. He’s also served as a role model and inspiration for African-American kids who may want to be coaches some day.

He’s not a man who says things for effect, so when Dungy says that he is not defined by his profession, you know he’s telling the truth, just as you know he firmly believes that winning a football game, even the Super Bowl, isn’t the most important thing in life.

You just wish he’d stop telling his players that — if only for a week.