James Dungy, the 18-year-old son of Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy, was found dead after an apparent suicide on Thursday, the sheriff's office said.
James Dungy's girlfriend found him when she returned to the Campus Lodge Apartments at about 1:30am, Hillsborough County Sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.
"Based on evidence at the scene, indications are that this death appears to be a suicide," Carter said. She said an autopsy was pending.
PHOTO: EPA
Dungy wasn't breathing when he was found, Carter said. A sheriff's deputy performed CPR before an ambulance took him to University Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Tony Dungy took the team plane from Indianapolis to Tampa, Florida, where he had coached the NFL's Buccaneers from 1996 to 2001.
The Colts (13-1) travel to Seattle for a game today, and team president Bill Polian said assistant head coach Jim Caldwell will take over "for however long Tony will be away, and however long he will be away is entirely up to him."
PHOTO: AP
Dungy is immensely popular around the NFL and known for his soft-spoken style, ever-steady leadership and commitment to balancing family life with football -- a rare trait in NFL coaches. He shared the blame when Indianapolis lost its first game on Sunday against the visiting San Diego Chargers, ending what had been a perfect season.
The Dungys have four other children: Daughters Tiara and Jade and sons Eric and Jordan. James, their second-oldest child, was taking extension classes at the University of South Florida.
Two other NFL head coaches lost close family members this season, both in November. Don Parcells, brother of Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells, died of brain cancer in New Jersey at age 62; Steve Belichick, father of New England Patriots' coach Bill Belichick, died at 86.
A month ago, the Washington Redskins had a 5-6 record and were tied for last in the NFC East division.
Now they are 8-6 and can clinch a NFL playoff spot on Saturday and give themselves at least a chance for the division title as they seek their fourth straight win. The third was a 35-7 victory last week over Dallas, the team they most like to beat.
This week's game is against the New York Giants, another division opponent they'll be motivated to beat after a 36-0 thrashing administered in the Meadowlands on Oct. 30. That was five days after the death of Wellington Mara, the Giants' longtime owner -- New York was inspired and Washington wasn't.
New York (10-4) leads Washington by two games in the division and needs only a victory on Saturday or in the finale at Oakland to clinch it. If Washington wins both (at Philadelphia the final week) and New York loses both, Washington wins it with a better division record.
But both could get at least a NFC wild-card spot this week if Washington wins.
In that scenario, New York would make the playoffs if Minnesota loses, or Tampa Bay loses and Chicago wins. Washington would get in with that win and losses by Minnesota, Dallas and Tampa Bay.
"I thought we had the potential to do something," says 43-year-old Ray Brown, who will start at right guard for Washington in place of Randy Thomas, lost for the season with a broken leg. "It looks like we're heading that way. It's not all over, said and done, but it's all in front of us, and I'm glad to be a part of a team that's playing for something in December."
New York also has won three in a row, beating Kansas City 27-17 last week as Tiki Barber ran for a team-record 220 yards behind a makeshift offensive line. Barber ran for 206 yards against Washington in the first meeting, most of it around the right side of the Redskins' defense. That probably won't happen again.
New York coach Tom Coughlin knows that.
"They have played extremely well," Coughlin said of the Redskins. "They have played very physical. They utilized the crowd as a weapon. We are going to have to prepare ourselves."
In addition to New York and Washington, the Chicago Bears, Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars could clinch playoff spots this weekend, joining the five teams already in.
Indianapolis, Cincinnati and New England have clinched their divisions. Denver, which has a tiebreaker over Cincinnati for a first-round bye in the AFC, is assured of at least a wild-card spot and could clinch the West division by winning at home today against Oakland.
Jacksonville could earn a wild-card spot with a win at Houston, but can be seeded no better than fifth in the AFC because Indianapolis already has clinched the AFC South and home field for the playoffs. The Jaguars also could get in if they lose and Kansas City and Pittsburgh are beaten.
In the NFC, all four divisions can be decided if Chicago, New York and Carolina clinch the North, East and South. Seattle already has won the West and can clinch home-field advantage by beating the Colts in Seattle today.
In other today's games, Tennessee is at Miami; Detroit faces New Orleans at San Antonio; Buffalo at Cincinnati; Dallas at Carolina; San Francisco at St. Louis; San Diego at Kansas City; Atlanta at Tampa Bay; Pittsburgh at Cleveland; and Philadelphia at Arizona. On Christmas Day, Chicago is at Green Bay and Minnesota at Baltimore.
New England is at the New York Jets on Monday.
The Barbers will be the only brother act in the NFL Pro Bowl on Feb. 12, and not the Manning quarterbacks.
Peyton Manning made it to no surprise, but brother Eli, who was having an up-and-down second season with the New York Giants, ended up as a third alternate in the NFC after voting by players, coaches and fans.
Peyton Manning was one of a NFL-high seven Indianapolis Colts who made the group of 42 players from each conference announced on Wednesday; the seven Pro Bowlers befit the Colts' 13-1 record. San Diego, which handed Indianapolis its first loss last Sunday, had six, including linebacker Shawne Merriman, one of two rookies to make it. The other was Houston kick returner Jerome Mathis.
This will be the second straight year in Honolulu, Hawaii for the Barber twins; Tiki, the Giants' running back and Ronde, the Tampa Bay cornerback.
The starting lineups will be announced on Jan. 7.
The Chicago Bears and Atlanta Falcons led the NFC with six selections each, while the Giants and Seattle had five apiece. The Bears' contingent was the largest they have sent to Hawaii in 15 years, and New York defensive ends Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora were the first pair from the same team at that position since Miami's Jason Taylor and Trace Armstrong in 2001.
Four teams had no players chosen -- Cleveland and Tennessee in the AFC, San Francisco and Green Bay in the NFC.
Peyton Manning, the NFL's MVP the last two seasons, led a distinguished trio of AFC quarterbacks, joining two-time Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady of New England and Cincinnati's Carson Palmer.
The NFC quarterbacks are Jake Delhomme of Carolina, Matt Hasselbeck of Seattle and Michael Vick of Atlanta.
BEARS UNLEASH REX
For a team that until recently couldn't find even one viable starting quarterback -- Jonathan Quinn, we hardly knew you -- the Bears now have an abundance of them. Maybe that's why benching the rookie Kyle Orton, whose record as a starter is 10-4, doesn't seem quite so strange, even as Chicago tries this Sunday to clinch its first division title since 1991.
With Rex Grossman recovered from the broken left ankle he sustained on Aug. 12, coach Lovie Smith made the switch this week, giving Grossman his first start since September 2004 when he tore a knee ligament and was lost for the rest of that season.
Grossman has been the bad luck Bear. But the 22-yard strike he threw to Muhsin Muhammad last Sunday, after he replaced Orton during the Bears' 16-3 victory over the Falcons, showed why Smith made the unorthodox decision to change quarterbacks late in a winning season.
"We feel Rex gives us our best chance to win," Smith said in a telephone interview earlier this week. "I like the strength of our quarterback position. It's a luxury most teams don't have."
The Bears haven't had it in a long time, either. Since 1998, 14 players have started at least once at quarterback; four starters were used last year. But Grossman was the starter heading into training camp, and his quick release adds a passing dimension to the Bears' offense that was absent with Orton.
Entering the Atlanta game, the Bears were averaging 126.9 passing yards a game. The only teams with a lower average were San Francisco and Houston -- and they are battling for the first overall draft pick.
"Our offense had gotten into the position where we weren't making as much progress as we feel we needed to," Smith said. "Rex gave us that spark. He gave us hope we could be a little bit better."
Merriman SUBDUES COLTS
The Chargers may have provided the blueprint for how to beat the Colts: by putting relentless pressure on quarterback Peyton Manning. But most teams don't have an outside linebacker like the rookie Shawne Merriman, who was named to the Pro Bowl this week, to rush the passer.
Merriman sacked Manning on the Colts' first play from scrimmage and later chased him down on a naked bootleg on a fourth and goal.
The last team to have a player like Merriman may have been the Giants, if Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer proves correct about Merriman. He compared him to Lawrence Taylor.
"He comes off the ball with such speed and power," Schottenheimer said this week in response to written questions submitted through the Chargers' public relations staff. "I'm careful to compare players, especially a rookie, to a Hall of Famer like Lawrence, but he certainly has some of the traits that made Taylor so successful."
Merriman is 6 feet 4 inches tall, and 272 pounds, an inch taller and 35 pounds heavier than Taylor's listed height and weight in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Merriman was the 12th overall selection in the draft, then raised eyebrows when he skipped the Chargers' off-season program and the first week of training camp in a contract dispute. Hamstring and knee injuries followed.
Still, Merriman has nine sacks this season, and helped the Chargers bring Manning down four times. Manning had been sacked just 12 times in the previous 13 games.
"Where a lot of offensive linemen will try to run you by and in many cases they can run you by the quarterback as he slides up, you'll see Shawne, in a last, desperate effort to get there, will go down and drop down low," Schottenheimer said. "He knocked the feet right out from under Manning twice in the ball game."
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