Brian Damage
10-01-2011, 04:10 PM
Mike Heimerdinger, a veteran assistant in the NFL who coached players including Steve McNair, Jay Cutler and Vince Young, has died. He was 58.
The Tennessee Titans confirmed Heimerdinger's death after talking with his family. He died Friday while in Mexico to receive experimental treatments for a rare form of cancer. He was offensive coordinator for the Titans when he was diagnosed with cancer in November 2010.
"Mike approached cancer with the same vigor and tenacity that he approached any football game — to win," Heimerdinger's wife, Kathie, said in a statement. "Even in the final minutes he never gave up — that was our Dinger. He was a deeply devoted husband and father, loving son and brother, loyal friend and committed coach who loved the game and life."
Heimderdinger began chemotherapy treatment five days after the diagnosis a day before Thanksgiving last November. At the time, coach Jeff Fisher said Heimerdinger had been very sick for three weeks.
Heimerdinger made a trip to Houston with the team for that Sunday's game and was greeted on the field before the game by his son, an intern with the Texans at the time.
He maintained his duties for the rest of the season but was fired in February, one day after Mike Munchak succeeded Fisher as Titans' coach.
Heimerdinger was in his second stint as the Titans' offensive coordinator. The man called "Dinger" was college roommates with Mike Shanahan and helped coach McNair to co-MVP of the NFL with Peyton Manning in 2003 during his first run in Tennessee.
He also spent 2005 as offensive coordinator of the New York Jets before joining Shanahan in Denver as assistant head coach in 2006 and 2007. Then it was back to Tennessee.
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/titans-assistant-heimerdinger-dies-58-14647001
The Tennessee Titans confirmed Heimerdinger's death after talking with his family. He died Friday while in Mexico to receive experimental treatments for a rare form of cancer. He was offensive coordinator for the Titans when he was diagnosed with cancer in November 2010.
"Mike approached cancer with the same vigor and tenacity that he approached any football game — to win," Heimerdinger's wife, Kathie, said in a statement. "Even in the final minutes he never gave up — that was our Dinger. He was a deeply devoted husband and father, loving son and brother, loyal friend and committed coach who loved the game and life."
Heimderdinger began chemotherapy treatment five days after the diagnosis a day before Thanksgiving last November. At the time, coach Jeff Fisher said Heimerdinger had been very sick for three weeks.
Heimerdinger made a trip to Houston with the team for that Sunday's game and was greeted on the field before the game by his son, an intern with the Texans at the time.
He maintained his duties for the rest of the season but was fired in February, one day after Mike Munchak succeeded Fisher as Titans' coach.
Heimerdinger was in his second stint as the Titans' offensive coordinator. The man called "Dinger" was college roommates with Mike Shanahan and helped coach McNair to co-MVP of the NFL with Peyton Manning in 2003 during his first run in Tennessee.
He also spent 2005 as offensive coordinator of the New York Jets before joining Shanahan in Denver as assistant head coach in 2006 and 2007. Then it was back to Tennessee.
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/titans-assistant-heimerdinger-dies-58-14647001