Charron Dorsey, a former Florida State standout and starter for the Dallas Cowboys, died earlier this week of complications from a stroke. He was 46.
Dorsey, who was remembered as a giant of a man, was part of the 1999 Florida State team that won a national title. By his senior year in 2000, the offensive tackle was a key member of the line that blocked for quarterback Chris Weinke, who won the Heisman Trophy.
The Dallas Cowboys selected him in the seventh round of the 2001 NFL Draft. He started two games late in his rookie season. However, the Cowboys waived him the next fall. Dorsey signed with the Texans, a franchise then in its inaugural season. But his NFL career basically ended in mid 2002. Dorsey was a mammoth of a man, standing 6-7. However, his NFL career was cut short after he struggled with his weight.
Since pro football, Dorsey became a coach back home in Jacksonville, Fla. He first worked with youth programs located in his childhood neighborhood. Then he coached for a middle school team in the city. His Matthew Gilbert Middle School team was so dominant that it did not lose a game for almost decade. He also coached at two high schools.
Fellow coach and friend Michael Holloway confirmed Charron Dorsey’s death in a story for the Florida Times Union.
“Just at a loss for words thinking about my brother,” Holloway told the newspaper. “We’ve been doing this for a very long time until now. We see kids that we’ve coached now are coaching or have kids themselves. … He’s had an impact on so many kids that have had the opportunity to make it to the next level.”
His coaching came full circle when Dorsey’s son joined the high school team. Last spring, Dorsey stepped down from his job, turning over the team to Holland.
His former athletic director called Dorsey ‘idol of community’
Brad Bernard, Dorsey’s athletic director at Parker High School, called Dorsey an idol of the community.
Dorsey “always made sure you were doing the right thing and wanted every player/kid he came across to know that it’s bigger than football and really wanted us to be great young men,“ Bernard told News 4 in Jacksonville.
Then the athletic director remembered the 2019 season, when Dorsey led the team to a district title.
“That 2019 year … was by far the best team I have been apart of, not just because of us winning but because it was more of a family than just a ball club,” Bernard said. ”And that is one thing Coach Dorsey always wanted with his teams. To be together and to be a family.”
Bernard lauded Charron Dorsey even more.
“He cared for the kids,“ the athletic director said. “The kids were his main priority. He fought for them tooth and nail. He was a great example as a man. (And) he could relate to the kids. 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. … 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.”
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