Colts coach Dungy's son found dead

[Onlooker]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/football/nfl/12/22/dungy.son.ap/index.html?cnn=yes

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

In a news release on its Web site, the Hillsborough County Sheriffs Office said it "responded to the Campus Lodge Apartments this morning at approximately 1:32 a.m. The girlfriend of James Dungy had returned to the apartment and discovered Dungy."

* * *

For anyone who follows NFL football, this is sad news.

[MadisonProgressive]

1. Jesus! Merry Fucking Christmas.... That really sucks...

My deepest condolences to the Dungy family and all Colts fans.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10572873/

[pfcpittman]

2. That is to bad

Coach dungy is a great guy and a great coach I wish his family the best.

[Stevendsmith]

3. That's awful news. My condolences to the Dungy family. (n/t)

[Caoimhe]

4. How sad, and just days before Xmas too

RIP James Dungy. You will be forever young.

[brentspeak]

5. My condolences

[Botany]

6. This is truly sad

Thoughts and prayers go out to the Dungy Family.

I hope that the media gives him space and not say something about
this tragedy every time they show a colts game or his picture on the
screen.

This puts football into it's proper prospective.

:cry:

[RamboLiberal]

7. My sympathies to the Dungy Family and to the Colts

What a shame. I've liked Tony since he was a special teams player with the Steelers. Good man. What a shame.

I never will understand why bad things happen to good people.

[ShockediSay]

8. Prayers -

all I can do at this point; heartfelt prayers for the family and the deceased, and so I pray.

[jobycom]

9. OMG. That poor man. He was supposed to be celebrating so much, and now...

And he's one of the nicest guys in the NFL, too, from all accounts. God, that's so painfully sad.

I'm going to go hug my kids.

[Felix Mala]

10. Local media here in Indy reporting it as a suicide...

[Ganja Ninja]

12. Our local Tampa Sports/Talk radio is reporting the same.

They are mentioning something about his Myspace.com web page. I only have this as second hand info from another local message board.

[Ganja Ninja]

19. Here's a link to his Myspace page.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=41899442

[shanti]

22. the account has been deleted

:(

[LisaL]

23. That appears to be common practice. Any time

somebody with an account on myspace.com gets in trouble, they delete an account. And there have been quite a few of those lately.

[Divine Discontent]

26. what I gathered, THIS MAY OFFEND SOME, DON'T READ if you easily offend

from user Ron from the Miami Dolphins user group who went to the account early in the morning. He saw it, and used the excerpt from a fan in the Seattle Seahawks group. This is offensive, DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ very offensive material.

Ron claims on - http://groups.google.com/group/alt.sports.football.pro.miami-dolphins/browse_thread/thread/6995f792774c53be/28731ed519356496?lnk=st&q=%22profile.myspace.com%2Findex.cfm%3Ffuseaction%3Duser.viewProfile%26friendID%3D41899442%22&rnum=8&hl=en#28731ed519356496




Let me describe it for you. Imagine an Oakland Raiders background
theme.


Got it? Ok... Now overlay it with an image of Dungy's son with a
bandana fashioned as a mask
across his face. *Under that was his age and height and stuff. Date
of
last login was marked as 12/21/05. Nearby was the text "F*ck the
Cops".


Below were numerous photos of pot buds, Snoop dog, other rappers, etc.
Every bit of text was written in "gangstah" slang. There was a photo
of pistol (glock?) His contact list was filled with kids in his age
group and apparent interests (gangstah stuff.) The last several
"messages" from these contacts reflected alarm/concern/remorse over
todays news.


Looks wise, it was as if someone loaded a Raiders media guide and the
combined discography of Cypress Hill and NWA into a cannon and shot it
against a glue covered wall.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------­------------------------------------------------------------


*How he describes himself:


"Tall, Dark, Niggerish and but on the real tip, i'm a 6'7.1/2"
f-f-f-football player and chillin wit my peeps iz wat i do. I hate
being threatened and if i am, i'm like a pitbull backed into a corner.
Don't let my playful and comical attitude fool ya cause i'm not playin
and i'm not dieing."


Who I'd like to meet:
"no fags"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------­-------------------------------------------------------------


Under the pic of the gun there was some text that said something like
this; If you pulla gun on me you better use it because if you don't me
and my gangz will hunt you down.


The Raiders background had a pic of Randy Moss, of all ppl.


There was an entry in his notebook from a girl named Melissa that said
something like this; I already miss you. You always made school fun and
you made me laugh. The entry was at 8am (I'm assuming it was eastern)
12-22-05


The time really caught my eye because I didn't hear about it until 10am
eastern. Did anyone else hear of the news earlier?

[DS1]

11. Why does one have to be an NFL follower to see this as sad news?

I don't get it.

[Dulcinea]

13. How incredibly sad.

My deepest condolences to the Dungy family.

I cannot imagine what it must feel like to lose a child. :cry:

[wicket]

14. Horrible

My thoughts and prayers are with his family :(

[leftofthedial]

15. oh man. that is horrific

what could be worse for a family than that.

[qanda]

16. So very sad

My heart goes out to Coach Dungy and his entire family. It must hurt more than anything in the world to lose a child.

[Bacchus39]

17. oh man, that is terrible

n/t

[pfcpittman]

18. Do we know how he died

[rocktivity]

20. Here's a little about how he lived

From the Indy Star online:

...He went to Florida community college with an eye on a career in law enforcement. And the 18-year-old was a beloved YMCA counselor.

...In the spring and this fall, attended Hillsborough Community College in Tampa Bay, Fla...He was pursuing an associate's of science degree in criminal justice technology...

(The)...principal at North Central High School said James...never traded on his celebrity...About two weeks ago, James was at North Central to pick up transcripts he needed to enroll at a Florida college...he said James appeared optimistic."...I went out to talk to him...He sounded excited, upbeat...It appeared to me he had a plan..."

James Dungy worked at summer camps at the Bob Sierra YMCA in Tampa, where the staff and children admired him...(S)aid staffer Keith Doster..."He was a fantastic summer camp counselor. The kids...looked up to him."

From WISH-TV:

The Campus Lodge apartments was home to 18-year-old James Dungy. Dungy was taking classes not far from there at the University of South Florida. On Wednesday night, he spent time with his girlfriend, Antoinette Anderson. She discovered him in the apartment not breathing after returning from a walk.

Anderson called 911 and rescue crews arrived moments later. A deputy performed CPR until fire crews arrived. He was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

From Bay News9.com:

Deputies said Dungy was discovered by his girlfriend, Antoinette Anderson, when she returned from a walk at the Campus Lodge Apartments at about 1:30 a.m. Dungy had at least one roommate, but he was apparently asleep at the time.

Well, it all sounds very mysterious--especially the part about the 1AM walk. I hope the police question the girlfriend and the roomate thoroughly.

:(
rocknation

[LisaL]

21. Yep. A female walking at 1:30 am in the morning?

She goes out for a walk in the middle of the night? Comes back and finds her boyfriend dead? Sounds very fishy, if you ask me...

[fishwax]

32. what's fishy about taking a late-night walk?

:shrug:

[LisaL]

33. I don't know many people who think it's a good idea for a woman

to walk around at night in the middle of the night. It's actually rather possible he argued with his girlfriend, she run off, then came back, but by this time he had already killed himself.

[fishwax]

35. I know plenty of women that do

and I suppose it all depends on the neighborhood. Also, she needn't have been walking alone. Anyway, I'd hardly consider it compelling evidence. The argument scenario seems plausible enough as a theory ...

[madfloridian]

24. Local news has had old footage from the Bucs. Broke my heart.

They still had the orange uniforms. His son would walk around with him at practice, such a doll.

Dungy was a genuinely good man. It showed in his eyes. When he had to leave here the way he did, it turned off so many. It was part of the game, but he was part of it here. As was Warrick Dunne and Warren Sapp, and all the others Gruden sent off to other pastures.

[rocktivity]

25. Police: James Dungy survived October overdose

A Florida hospital treated James Dungy for a drug overdose two months before his apparent suicide, according to police records.

...On Oct. 21, James Dungy, 18, said he was depressed when he took about 14 prescription painkillers, according to a Hillsborough County sheriff's report. James Dungy was taken to an area hospital. No other information about the incident was immediately available.

...James Dungy's girlfriend, Antoinette Anderson, 18, Tampa, found him when she returned to the Campus Lodge Apartments at 1:30 a.m Thursday, police said. He was pronounced dead at University Community Hospital. (link)

Depressed about what, I wonder? And whose perscription painkillers were they anyway?

:(
rocknation

[Doctor_J]

27. Not to cast aspersions on Tony

who is one of the REALLY good guys in pro sports, but I am surprised he didn't take a LOA after the October episode.

[BlueInPhilly]

28. That Ron guy is a complete A-HOLE

I bet Tony would walk give up everything - his 13 wins, a possible Super Bowl ring, everything - if he could have James once again.

What I don't understand is why the kid, after already OD'ng 2 months ago, was not put on psychiatric help. Maybe he was, I don't know. The success rate of 2nd suicide tries is staggering.

OT - How do I edit my posts? Thanks.

[Doctor_J]

30. Click on your post, then on the little "Edit" choice toward the lower

right of the box containing the post.

[Divine Discontent]

29. google cache stuff and reports of what people saw before site was removed

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&rls=RNWE,RNWE:2005-29,RNWE:en&q=%22profile.myspace.com%2Findex.cfm%3Ffuseaction%3Duser.viewProfile%26friendID%3D41899442%22&sa=N&tab=ig

[rocktivity]

31. Updates

From the Kansas City Star:

Cause not determined in Dungy son’s death

A medical examiner’s preliminary report Friday confirmed that the 18-year-old son of Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy took his own life, though the cause of death will not be determined for four to six weeks (pending a)...toxicology study...

How can they call it suicide if they can't determine the cause of death yet? I guess this means we can rule out hanging himself and gunshot wounds.

From the IndyStar Online:

James Dungy was both full of faith and deeply troubled
Neighbors say he had turned negative; others recall a happy, polite young man

..."When I first met him, he was a pretty cool guy, but after a while, he would always talk negative," said Shanda Walker, 26, Weathers' roommate. "After Thanksgiving break, we were talking about our families, and he said, '(expletive) Thanksgiving.' He never had anything good to say about his life."

...A profile on a popular free Internet community under the name James Dungy, with (his) photo...and apparent first-person narrative from him...contained pictures of handguns, marijuana, stacks of cash, gang signs and sexual positions...Heroes listed included "the D.C. Snipers"...(He) appeared wearing a bandana over his nose and mouth beside text condemning the police...(The site) was taken offline Thursday afternoon.

And what in the world would HE have to be negative about--being the underachieving child of a highly successful parent?

:(
rocknation

[LisaL]

34. He might have left a note?