Dungy, Wife Need to Find Source of Enduring Strength

I have watched my parents bury two of my four siblings, the most recent just six weeks ago, when we laid to rest my brother. He would have celebrated a birthday on Thursday. I have witnessed the raw emotion that accompanies such a tragic event.

So when the ESPN.com editors dispatched an e-mail Thursday morning, seeking a reactionary column to the death of James Dungy, the 18-year-old son of Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy and his wife, Lauren, I approached the laptop keyboard with this firsthand reality: Not even the greatest literary giants of this or any other time are capable of crafting words sufficient to assuage the profound grief that is inherent to the passing of any parent's child.

Admittedly more hack than wordsmith am I, so there isn't a single syllable of this column that can adequately console the Dungy family on their loss, or even remotely make sense of the situation. Editors have a pet term, "weighing in," on such stories. But words, even the sort of eloquent prose of which I'm rarely capable, carry little gravitas at these times.

To say nothing, though, in such cases is to essentially be as hollow as the hollow words themselves, and so some sincere effort is surely in order.

There is a devastating incongruity that transpires when the circle of life suddenly comes unraveled, and parents are called upon to bid an early farewell to a child. The celebrity imposed upon Tony Dungy and his family because of his station in life will neither lessen nor exacerbate what certainly must be the most painful experience imaginable.

I did not mean to insult you with the word assure. I too chose a casket during a holiday season, in fact I chose 2 caskets in the space of 3 days. My father and my son died the same weekend of different causes, both sudden. Christmas had no meaning for me that year, it was just another day of grieving that I had to survive. Now Christmas is when I miss them the most. God Bless you.

http://www.tampatrib.com/MGBLU2W0KHE.html

Jamie Marie Gonzalez, 17, a senior at Armwood High School who used to date Dungy, said he may have changed during the past year in Indianapolis, but when they talked by phone recently he seemed to be the same friendly young man she remembered.

She said Dungy had tracked her down through a free Internet community called Myspace.com. The only thing that seemed out of character was a rough profile Dungy created for himself recently at Myspace.com, containing racy images and profanity.

She was shocked at the Internet profile Dungy created a few weeks ago, in which he appears wearing a bandana over his nose and mouth beside text condemning the police. The site contains pictures of handguns, marijuana, Snoop Dog, stacks of cash, gang signs and sexual positions. The heroes he lists include "the D.C. Snipers," Malcolm X and the Black Panthers. It was not accessible by Thursday afternoon.

I saw this this morning................ it was a little sick.

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