A former Cowboys offensive lineman from the Dave Campo era has passed away at the shockingly young age of 46.
Char-ron Dorsey died earlier this week following complications from a stroke. Though his NFL career was an abbreviated one, Dorsey remained involved in the game as a coach at the middle and high school levels in the Jacksonville area, where he grew up.
Dorsey was a seventh-round draft pick in 2001 out of Florida State, where he played on an undefeated national championship squad and received All-ACC honors blocking for Heisman Trophy winner Chris Weinke.
His rookie summer with the Cowboys got off to a rocky start, though, with the 390-pound lineman leaving camp at one point after feeling pressure from coaches to drop some weight and improve his play. He returned and went on to see action in nine games during the 2001 season, including two starts (for an injured Solomon Page) late in a disappointing year for the 5-11 Cowboys.
2001 was Dallas’s first season without Troy Aikman, so Dorsey spent much of his playing time blocking for running back Emmitt Smith (in his final 1,000-yard season) in a run-heavy Cowboys offense that failed to find a real rhythm with first-year quarterback Quincy Carter.
Dorsey was waived after the Cowboys’ 2002 season opener and immediately picked up by the Houston Texans, who were playing their inaugural season. He would play in two games that year and logged one more start before being released. Dorsey made one more attempt to latch on to a roster with the New York Giants in 2003, but he missed all of training camp rehabbing from knee surgery and never made the team.
“Teams want offensive lineman to be pretty big. Maybe I got too big,” Dorsey once said in an interview.
“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.”
[affiliatewidget_smgtolocal]
Dorsey returned to his native Florida and began coaching in youth programs, helping lead multiple programs to prominence. Over a 10-season tenure at his own alma mater, Matthew Gilbert Middle School went 87-5 and won three championships. Taking over a program in 2018 that hadn’t had a winning season in a decade, he led Parker High School to a district title in his second season.
“He’s had an impact on so many kids that have had the opportunity to make it to the next level,” said Michael Holloway, who had coached alongside Dorsey for nearly 20 years.
“No kid could come to him and tell him something that he didn’t understand. He could relate to them. I think he saved some kids,” added athletic director Brad Bernard. “If a kid came up to him and said they were going through hard times, he encouraged them to fight through it because he went through it.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3]
[mm-video type=video id=01hqs7tdfs1f7bdecbh6 playlist_id=01eqbwens7sctqdrqg player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01hqs7tdfs1f7bdecbh6/01hqs7tdfs1f7bdecbh6-9d4a5268b3c730dab47fef35f5ee64d7.jpg]
[lawrence-newsletter]