Tony Dungy's 18 year old son found dead

This is simply awful.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2268593

Dungy's son, 18, found dead in Tampa suburb
Associated Press

LUTZ, Fla. -- James Dungy, the 18-year-old son of Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy, was found dead in a Tampa-area apartment Thursday.

No foul play is suspected, but a cause of death won't be announced pending an autopsy, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

James Dungy's girlfriend found him when she returned to the Campus Lodge Apartments at about 1:30 a.m., Carter said.

He wasn't breathing, and a sheriff's deputy performed CPR before an ambulance rushed him to University Community Hospital, Carter said. He was pronounced dead there.

Carter said "nothing evident" was amiss in the apartment, but declined to discuss details.

Tony Dungy has left the Colts and is in Tampa. The Colts (13-1) are at Seattle on Saturday, and team president Bill Polian said that assistant head coach Jim Caldwell has taken over for Dungy.

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Tony Dungy, left, included his son James in team activities, including this photo op with President Clinton in 2000.

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http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=mortensen_chris&id=2268721

Family has always been bigger for Dungy
By Chris Mortensen
ESPN.com

When I woke up this morning, I had a lot on my plate. Now, I have no taste for any of it. Not the NFL games. Not the Pro Bowl teams. Not rumors about coaches and executives on the hot seat. Not Christmas.

All I have is a broken heart for Tony and Lauren Dungy, parents of five children. Their eldest son, James, was found dead at 18 years old in his apartment near Tampa, Fla., this morning.

Who cares now that Dungy's Indianapolis Colts are 13-1 and not 14-0?

Tragedies and death happen all too frequently in our lives. There's just something about this tragedy that feels so raw and so hurtful that words cannot describe the emotions and grief. And it wasn't even my child.

Anybody who knows Tony Dungy understands these emotions. When I broke the news by telephone to Tom Jackson, my ESPN colleague, we could not disguise our broken voices and tears. I imagine there have been many of us around this league at every level feeling the same lows.

Of all of the wonderful people in the NFL, no man is more wonderful than Dungy. He's the role model in this league, but he's really a model who transcends the game. His football team means a lot to him. His faith and his family mean more, which is why this loss cannot be compared to any other Dungy has experienced.

I'll never forget the day Dungy was fired as the coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. When I had the opportunity to speak to him, he was doing fine, which was no surprise. His greatest concern was for his children, who were struggling with the rejection and the uncertainties that surrounded their future. James was about 13 or 14 at the time.

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http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=pasquarelli_len&id=2268643

Dungy, wife need to find source of enduring strength
By Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com

I have watched my parents bury two of my four siblings, the most recent just six weeks ago, when we laid to rest my brother. He would have celebrated a birthday on Thursday. I have witnessed the raw emotion that accompanies such a tragic event.

So when the ESPN.com editors dispatched an e-mail Thursday morning, seeking a reactionary column to the death of James Dungy, the 18-year-old son of Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy and his wife, Lauren, I approached the laptop keyboard with this firsthand reality: Not even the greatest literary giants of this or any other time are capable of crafting words sufficient to assuage the profound grief that is inherent to the passing of any parent's child.

Admittedly more hack than wordsmith am I, so there isn't a single syllable of this column that can adequately console the Dungy family on their loss, or even remotely make sense of the situation. Editors have a pet term, "weighing in," on such stories. But words, even the sort of eloquent prose of which I'm rarely capable, carry little gravitas at these times.

To say nothing, though, in such cases is to essentially be as hollow as the hollow words themselves, and so some sincere effort is surely in order.

There is a devastating incongruity that transpires when the circle of life suddenly comes unraveled, and parents are called upon to bid an early farewell to a child. The celebrity imposed upon Tony Dungy and his family because of his station in life will neither lessen nor exacerbate what certainly must be the most painful experience imaginable.

Less than a week ago, Dungy presided over a group of men poised on the cusp of football immortality. On Thursday, he was forced to identify a young man he fathered and, in so doing, to confront his own mortality. It is, to be sure, an exercise in which a parent must plumb the depths of emotion and dip deep into the reservoir of faith.

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Didn't know the kid, but he went to USF with me. I probably saw him on campus a few times without knowing who he was. Poor guy...

I feel so bad for Mr. & Mrs. Dungy.

Dungy has a big following in MN from his days playing with the football gophers and being on the coaching staff of the Vikings. That's very sad news indeed. :'(

My heart goes out to the Dungy family.

far too young.

he's finally getting his due and things are going great and this.No joy will be left in this season.

He never bad-mouths players, teams or owners. Just a great guy.
This really puts things in perspective here. Winning football games is secondary to family, and Tony's is a close-knit family. 18 is way too young to be leaving this planet under any circumstances, but under these its even worse.
I am saddened and sickend by hearing this terrible news.
My heart and prayers go out to the Dungee family.

We left Tampa in 2000 when Dungy was still the Bucs coach. Have great respect for him. This is just so sad.

http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2005/12/22/135227.html

It appears to have been suicide.

Accidental death is bad enough, but now his parents and all who knew him will be blaming themselves, and wondering how they could have missed the clues...

My heart goes out to this family.....