Char-ron Dorsey, a former Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman who later went on to find success as a middle school and high school football coach in his native Florida, has died. He was 46. Dorsey died from complications of a stroke on Monday, Michael Holloway, a longtime coaching colleague, confirmed to The Florida Times-Union. He’s had an impact on so many kids that have had the opportunity to make it to the next level,” Holloway said.
Dorsey’s own football career started at Florida State University, where he was a part of the Seminoles’ national championship team under coach Bobby Bowden in 1999. A year later, Dorsey earned All-ACC honors starting at right tackle.
The Cowboys drafted Dorsey in the seventh round of the 2001 NFL Draft and he started in two games before being released by the team and then picked up by the Houston Texans, per the Times-Union. Showing up in Houston with 388 pounds on his 6-foot 6-inch frame, Dorsey vowed to make getting in shape a priority and lost 35 pounds, according to the Houston Chronicle.
“Teams want offensive lineman to be pretty big,” Dorsey told the newspaper in 2002. “Maybe I got too big.”
He continued, “I battle this every year. I get question after question every year about it. It gets to the point where you get tired of hearing about it.”
By 2003, Dorsey moved on from the NFL and began to focus on impacting the next generation of football players.
At Matthew Gilbert Middle School in Jacksonville, the retired NFL player helped to build a dynasty, guiding the team to an undefeated record for almost a decade before he moved on to coach at Jackson and Parker high schools. Among his players was his son, C.J. Dorsey, who is now a defensive back at Ferris State University in Michigan. Dorsey stepped away from coaching last year, per the Times-Union. The father and former athlete also made sure to dedicate time to mentoring kids on Jacksonville’s Eastside. That was what he always told the kids, all you’ve got to do is work hard and you can make it,” Holloway told the Jacksonville newspaper. “But you have to be willing to go through the fire.”
