Jeff Dickerson, a fixture at ESPN and in the Chicago sports market for two decades, died on Tuesday. He was 44.
The longtime ESPN reporter, who made his name covering the Chicago Bears, had been undergoing treatment at a hospice center in Barrington after being diagnosed with colon cancer earlier this year.
In a cruel twist, Dickerson died at the same hospice care facility that his wife, Caitlin, died in two years ago. Caitlin Dickerson had undergone treatment for melanoma and its complications for eight years. Jeff Dickerson is survived by their son, Parker, and his parents, George and Sandy Dickerson.
“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. “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. That’s just who he was. We are holding Jeff’s family, and especially his son, Parker, in our prayers.”
Dickerson 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. 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.
