Dungy looks ahead while savoring win

Tony Dungy made no promises, but the Indianapolis coach indicated Monday that he plans to be around next fall when the Colts set out to defend their Super Bowl title.

There had been conjecture he might step down, perhaps to pursue a Christian ministry, after reaching the NFL mountaintop.

“Every year, probably in the last three or four years, I’ve kind of evaluated where I am at the end of the year,” Dungy said at the traditional day-after news conference, only a few hours removed from his team’s 29-17 victory over the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. “I still have a lot of passion for the game, a lot of enthusiasm. After a night like last night, how can you not love it?

“So I’m not burned out. I’m not tired at all. I’m very, very fired up and looking forward to coming back. But I’ll evaluate it and we’ll see where we’ll go.”

The league has a newly minted champion, but, in a way, more of the same. The AFC has won four consecutive Super Bowls and eight of 10, largely because of superior quarterbacks. Before that, from the 1984 to 1996 seasons, NFC teams won 13 consecutive Lombardi trophies.

Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, whose team knocked off Tom Brady and the New England Patriots along the postseason trail, said he’s determined to keep improving.

“In some cases, I’ve seen past quarterbacks that have won a Super Bowl and get something I call ‘the pass,’ ” said Manning, who appeared at the early-morning news conference with his coach and also received a Cadillac Escalade for winning most-valuable-player honors. “They have a bad year and [people] say, ‘He won a Super Bowl, we’ll give him the pass.’

“I guess what I’m saying is, I don’t want the pass. I want to be held accountable each and every year. Next year, my goal is to be a better quarterback.”

And, evidently, Dungy plans to be an even better coach. Speculation about his future increased last year after the apparent suicide of his 18-year-old son, James, in December 2005. However, he appears to have goals still on his to-do list.

Whether he will be coaching the same Colts team next season is another issue. At least three key players -- defensive end Dwight Freeney, linebacker Cato June and running back Dominic Rhodes -- are due to become free agents.

Team President Bill Polian has already said the club will keep Freeney, with the sack specialist reportedly getting the franchise-player designation if he and the team are unable to reach a long-term deal.

That would all but assure the Colts of keeping Freeney -- another team would have to give up two first-round draft choices as compensation for signing him -- but it would also require paying him more than $8 million next season.

As for June and Rhodes, they could be gone.

“That’s why you want to take advantage of the team you have now, and there’s no question there will be some changes,” Manning said.

The Bears too could look a bit different. Although 19 of 22 starters are under contract for next season, and linebacker Lance Briggs is likely to get the franchise tag, Chicago has some decisions to make at defensive tackle. Ian Scott and Alfonso Boone, two of the four players in the rotation at that spot, are due to become free agents; Tommie Harris is recovering from a serious hamstring injury; and Tank Johnson is facing gun charges and other legal problems that could prompt the team to release him.

Likewise, there are possible changes afoot among the coaches and in the front office, both of which are the lowest-paid staffs in the league. Defensive coordinator Ron Rivera is a head-coaching candidate; special-teams coach Dave Toub reportedly is eyeing a return to Philadelphia; and two of the top scouting executives, Bobby DePaul and Greg Gabriel, are likely to be seeking a big pay bump after helping assemble an NFC championship team.

At least two of the Colts were taking some time Monday to relish their triumph. Manning and Dungy, operating on zero sleep, seemed as wide-eyed and excited as they were after the game.

At the postgame party, Manning said he was on the phone with a friend when Dungy handed him another cellphone and urged him to hang up on his buddy.

“He hands me the phone and says, ‘You need to take this call,’ ” Manning said. “And I’m like, ‘I’m on the phone here.’ He said, ‘No, you need to take this call.’ I hang up [on the friend] and it’s the President.... He was talking about what a great win it was, and playing in those tough conditions. He watched the entire game. He said he was pulling for us and looked forward to welcoming us to the White House, which I look forward to that as well.”

The Super Bowl was broadcast in more than 200 countries.

But one of Manning’s most memorable moments from Sunday’s game was when he and receivers Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne felt like they had the field to themselves.

“[We] always go out there two hours before kickoff and do what I call the pre-pregame,” Manning said. “We go out and throw our route tree. I said it’s going to be tough to do that in the Super Bowl. There are going to be all kinds of people there -- Tom Cruise will be out on the field, and you’ll have to tell him to get out of the way.

“And Prince will be warming up.”

Instead, the field was almost empty. Manning said a typical home game has more people standing on the turf than were there Sunday.

“We had the whole field to ourselves,” he said. “It was ... kind of a neat scene, just to have me and my two great teammates, and we had the whole Super Bowl field. And we were throwing routes and deep balls, and the ball didn’t touch the ground.”

Afterward, in the wake of victory, their feet didn’t touch either.

sam.farmer@latimes.com