During the 2002 offseason, a coaching change in Tampa Bay would alter the path of the NFL for the next decade.

The Buccaneers fired Tony Dungy, who led the team to four playoff appearances in six seasons. He was replaced by Jon Gruden, who the Bucs had to trade for, giving up two first-round picks, two second-round picks and cash to the Raiders. The splurge appeared worth it, as the Bucs beat the Raiders in the Super Bowl during Gruden's first season.

Meanwhile, Dungy would lead the Colts to seven playoff appearances in seven seasons and he was his own title in Super Bowl XLI.

"We didn’t talk too much," Dungy says of the 2002 offseason. "We're neighbors, we live right around the corner from each other and we've talked a lot since then, but at that time coming in I just told him, 'You got a great group of guys, you've got some tremendously talented players who are motivated. You're gonna do great.' And they did."

Dungy is soft spoken and it is hard to believe he has a bad bone in his body, but that Super Bowl XXXVII put him in a predicament. He didn't know if he should root for the Bucs, despite the team featuring many of his former players.

"That was a hard one for me because you kind of felt like Moses," Dungy says. "We'd gotten to the promised land, got to see it, but we never quite got across. It was a little bittersweet, but I was happy for the guys that had been with me from the beginning, who had worked hard and gone through those losing seasons and finally got there, but I was disappointed not to be there myself."

Gruden made three total playoff appearances in seven seasons in Tampa Bay before getting fired after the 2008 season. Dungy and Gruden would both follow their resepctive coaching stints with broadcasting gigs, Dungy at NBC and Gruden at ESPN, while the two maintained homes in Tampa Bay.

"He has an office back around the corner actually where he's holed up watching those tapes all day, but it's a great family," Dungy says. "Their boys went to school with our boys and he's intense, I'll say that. He actually got kicked off the field when he was a dad, he was a fan in the stands, they said 'Mr. Gruden, you're going to have to leave, you're harassing these officials too much."

On the Dungy's block at least, Gruden keeps his outbursts to a minimum.

"He's a quiet neighbor!" Dungy's wife Lauren says. "We don't really see him too much, but we do see him running around the neighborhood a couple of times."

Now, just imagine Dungy and Gruden at youth football games breaking down the offensive and defensive schemes. That'd be a site.

With Gruden returning to coaching with the Raiders this year, the neighborhood run-ins will have to wait until the offseason.

Tony and Lauren Dungy spoke to ThePostGame at the NFL Experience in Times Square before the couple read to students from Boys & Girls Clubs of New York City. The two recently came out with two children's books entitled, Austin Plays Fair and Maria Finds Courage. The books include fictional versions of Tony and Lauren as coaches.

-- Follow Jeff Eisenband on Twitter @JeffEisenband. Like Jeff Eisenband on Facebook.