Last July, long-time ESPN Chicago journalist Jeff Dickerson announced that he was reducing his responsibilities with the network to care for his ailing wife and his seven-year-old son. On Tuesday, Dickerson tweeted that his wife had passed away after a long battle with cancer:
My beautiful wife Caitlin passed away today after fighting cancer for 7.5 years. Caitlin is an inspiration. She refused to let cancer dictate her life. Caitlin was the best wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend you could ever ask for. We love her dearly.
— Jeff Dickerson (@DickersonESPN) February 27, 2019
Dickerson’s previous tweet was about a coma his wife battled through earlier this month:
A sincere thank you to everyone for your compassion during my wife’s nearly 3 week hospitalization. We still face long odds, but my wife is the toughest person I know. How many people inexplicably wake up from a 9-day coma & check out of hospice? The answer: my wife.
— Jeff Dickerson (@DickersonESPN) February 12, 2019
It’s obviously horrible to hear that Caitlin Dickerson has now passed away, and these must be awfully tough times for the Dickerson family.
Dickerson has been a veteran presence for ESPN in the Chicago market, first joining ESPN Chicago back in 2001 and most recently covering the Bears (for ESPN.com, ESPN TV properties and WABC-7), serving as an analyst on Loyola-Chicago basketball broadcasts, and co-hosting Dickerson and Hood nationally on ESPN Radio. He’s still been doing a fair bit of that work despite his wife’s illness, offering plenty of Bears’ reports and doing some radio hosting as well. Our thoughts go out to him and his family at this time.
[Jeff Dickerson on Twitter]
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.