Former NFL player, coach Dick Jauron dead at 74

Dick Jauron, the former head coach of two different NFL franchises, died Saturday. He was 74.

The Chicago Bears confirmed the death. Jauron was the Bears’ head coach from 1999 to 2003. 

He was previously diagnosed with cancer, The Daily Item in Massachusetts reported.

He became the Buffalo Bills’ head coach in 2006, a role he maintained until 2009. The next season, Jauron was named the Philadelphia Eagles’ defensive backs coach under Andy Reid.

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Jauron was a two-sport star at Yale in the early 1970s, and he was drafted by both the Detroit Lions in the NFL Draft and the St. Louis Cardinals in the Major League Baseball amateur draft. He ultimately made football his lifelong pursuit, beginning with five seasons as a defensive back in Detroit and three more with the Cincinnati Bengals before his retirement in 1980.

The well-liked Jauron moved into coaching and five years later was hired by the Bills as a defensive backs coach. He went on to coach defensive backs in Green Bay and became friends with Reid, who was an assistant offensive line and tight ends coach.

Jauron had just one winning record in five seasons with the Bears, winning the NFC North in 2001 before losing to the Eagles — then coached by Reid — in the divisional round of the playoffs.

He finished with a 60-82 record and one playoff berth over parts of 10 seasons as a head coach.

Jauron’s death came just two days after the Bears announced the death of Virginia Halas McCaskey, who inherited the franchise from her father, George Halas, and spent four-plus decades as the principal owner.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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