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While nothing official has been released yet on the passing of Minnesota Vikings’ Offensive Line Coach Tony Sparano, there are some initial reports trickling in.
Chris Mortensen of ESPN, via his colleague Adam Schefter, has passed along the following information about what may have happened. It sounds as though this was an issue that arose over the past few days.
1/2 More details on tragic passing of Vikings’ OL coach Tony Sparano, via @mortreport. Sparano complained about chest pains this weekend and went to hospital Thursday. Doctors did tests, but released him Friday.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 22, 2018
2/2 Tony Sparano and his wife, Jeannette, were about to leave for church this morning when she found him unconscious in their kitchen. She tried CPR, but he could not be revived. He was 56.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 22, 2018
There hadn’t been any word of Sparano having any sort of health issues prior to Thursday that I had been aware of. Vikings’ coaches were supposed to be back to the Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center on Monday with rookies reporting for Training Camp on Tuesday morning.
Obviously, the official reports probably won’t be out for some time, but there are some initial indicators that it was a heart issue for the 56-year old coach. Hopefully there will be some more definitive answers going forward. Whenever that news comes out, we will have more on it here for you.