ESPN 1000 Bears reporter Jeff Dickerson, 44, dies after battling cancer

ESPN 1000 Bears reporter Jeff Dickerson, 44, died Tuesday after battling colon cancer. Dickerson is survived by his 11-year-old son, Parker, and parents, George and Sandy Dickerson.

Dickerson’s wife, Caitlin, died from melanoma at 36 in 2019. According to ESPN, Dickerson died at the same hospice facility where Caitlin died.

“He was simply the best,” ESPN 1000 morning-show host David Kaplan said. “It sounds like when people die, everyone says nice things. He was truly that guy. Never had a mean bone in his body.”

“When I walked in there last [Thursday], all these guys were there because we all loved him. Jeff said to me, ‘I just gotta get to my next chemo treatment.’ That was today.”

Dickerson had many roles with ESPN. He began covering the Bears in 2001 with ESPN 1000, then added ESPNChicago.com to his plate in 2009. He moved to ESPN.com full-time in 2013, becoming part of the website’s NFL Nation vertical.

“Jeff did as good a job as anybody can do on what might be the most competitive beat in the city,” Kaplan said. “We all want to work hard, but that Bears beat, you’ve gotta come up with content, the team usually stinks. Jeff was able to be opinionated and break news.”

Dickerson also hosted a national radio show with Jonathan Hood, was a TV analyst for Loyola men’s basketball and reported for ABC 7. Dickerson graduated from Buffalo Grove High School and attended the University of Illinois.

More to come.

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