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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Veteran NFL assistant coach Heimerdinger dies

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Mike Heimerdinger, a veteran assistant coach in the NFL who directed high-powered offenses and developed quarterbacks such as Steve McNair, Jay Cutler and Vince Young, has died. He was 58.

The Tennessee Titans confirmed Heimerdinger’s death after talking with his family. He died Friday while in Mexico to receive experimental treatments for a rare form of cancer. He was offensive coordinator for the Titans when he was diagnosed with cancer in November 2010.

“Mike approached cancer with the same vigor and tenacity that he approached any football game – to win,” Heimerdinger’s wife, Kathie, said in a statement. “Even in the final minutes he never gave up – that was our Dinger. He was a deeply devoted husband and father, loving son and brother, loyal friend and committed coach who loved the game and life.”

Heimerdinger began chemotherapy treatment five days after the diagnosis a day before last Thanksgiving. At the time, then-coach Jeff Fisher said Heimerdinger had been very sick for three weeks.

Heimerdinger made a trip to Houston with the team for that Sunday’s game and was greeted on the field before the game by his son, then an intern with the Texans.

He maintained his duties for the rest of the season but was fired in February, one day after Mike Munchak succeeded Fisher as Titans’ coach.

Heimerdinger was in his second stint as the Titans’ offensive coordinator. The man called “Dinger” was college roommates with veteran NFL coach Mike Shanahan and served as the receivers coach of Shanahan’s Denver Broncos from 1995 to 1999, when the team won two Super Bowls.