Former Chicago Bears and Buffalo Bills head coach Dick Jauron has died at age 74 after a brief bout with cancer, the Bills announced on Saturday.
Jauron led the Bears from 1999 to 2003 and won the AP Coach of the Year award after Chicago went 13-3 and won the NFC Central title.
He didn’t have a winning record in his final two seasons with the Bears, and he was fired after the 2003 season and replaced by Lovie Smith.
Jauron was the defensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions in 2004 and took over on an interim basis in 2005 when the team fired Steve Mariucci.
Jauron was hired as head coach by the Bills in 2006 but never led them to the playoffs. He was fired mid-season in 2009.
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In his 10 seasons as an NFL head coach, he had a combined record of 60-82. He last coached in the league with the Cleveland Browns as their defensive coordinator in 2011-12.
Jauron played eight seasons as a defensive back with the Detroit Lions and Cincinnati Bengals, making the Pro Bowl in 1974 and intercepting 25 passes in his career before retiring at the end of the 1980 season. He played college football at Yale and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2015.
