I don't know anybody I've met in my 54 years in life who has handled adversity over the last decade with more grace and strength and dignity than Jeff Dickerson. "I'd ask him how he's doing and his first response is, 'How are you doing? How are ?' The dignity with which he has carried himself through some of the most difficult times any human being would be asked to go through, what his wife went through and the dignity and strength and grace that he showed at her side throughout all of this. "JD always wants to know how you're doing," Waddle said. No one around him heard a word of self-pity, and he disarmed those who expressed concern by asking them about their own lives. In addition to treatment and his work responsibilities, he spent the past year chronicling Parker's sports activities, traveling with him to basketball and baseball tournaments and attending his fall football games.Įven after being placed in hospice last week, he told colleagues he was there merely to humor his doctors. He's at Vaughn's event honoring Vaughn for a great cause, despite struggling through something himself."ĭickerson never wavered in his belief that he would beat back cancer, joking with dark humor that he had too much experience with it. "He was there for a colleague that he had the utmost respect for and loved like a brother. "If you need something to encapsulate or describe who Jeff Dickerson was, that's it," said ESPN 1000 host Tom Waddle, a former Bears receiver and close friend of Dickerson's. Few at the event knew that his disease was advancing. 14, Dickerson served as the emcee for the foundation's inaugural charity gala in suburban Chicago. He also joined the board of the Vaughn McClure Foundation, a non-profit he helped establish to honor the memory of McClure, a former Bears beat writer and Atlanta Falcons reporter for ESPN who died in 2020. We are holding Jeff's family, and especially his son, Parker, in our prayers."ĭickerson said in 2019 that he considered Caitlin an "inspiration" because "she refused to let cancer dictate her life." He channeled that determination upon receiving his own cancer diagnosis in early 2021, plowing ahead with a full schedule that included parenting Parker, fundraising for cancer research and covering the Chicago Bears for ESPN digital and ESPN 1000 radio. "We all got together in October for an event, and there he was lifting our spirits and assuring us he was going to beat cancer. "JD was one of the most positive people you will ever meet," ESPN deputy editor for digital NFL coverage Heather Burns said in a statement. Jeff Dickerson is survived by their son, Parker, and his parents, George and Sandy Dickerson. Caitlin Dickerson had undergone treatment for melanoma and its complications for eight years. In a cruel twist, Dickerson died at the same hospice care facility that his wife, Caitlin, died in two years ago. Jeff Dickerson, a fixture at ESPN and in the Chicago sports market for two decades, died Tuesday of complications from colon cancer. You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browserĮSPN Chicago Bears reporter Jeff Dickerson dies
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