Former NFL player and head coach Dick Jauron has died at the age of 74 following a short battle with cancer.

The Daily Item in Massachusetts, where Jauron attended high school, is reporting that he passed away early on Saturday morning.

After spending eight years in the league as a player, the ex-safety went on to enjoy almost 30 years as an NFL coach, most notably taking charge of the Chicago Bears and the Buffalo Bills.

He was head coach of the Bears from 1999-2003, winning the NFL Coach of the Year prize in his third season at the helm after Chicago went 13-3 and reached the NFC Divisional game.

Unfortunately for Jauron, the Bears went 4-12 in 2002 and 7-9 in 2003 before he was fired by the team. He finished with a 35-45 mark.

Three years after leaving Soldier Field he was hired by Buffalo, where he went 24-33 before he was fired in November 2009.

‘I was very fortunate to start my NFL career with Dick Jauron as my first head coach,’ said Eric Wood, a former Bills center who was drafted in the first round by Jauron in 2009.

‘He set a great foundation for my career with his extensive knowledge of the NFL game and helped us develop as professionals both on and off the field. Coach Jauron was a sincere and thoughtful family man and a true gentleman.

‘My heart goes out to his family during this difficult time.’

The Yale alumni, who played for the Detroit Lions and Cincinnati Bengals in his own career, started off as a defensive backs coach with the Bills in 1985 before taking on the same role with the Green Bay Packers a year later.

After nine seasons in Green Bay he enjoyed a four-year spell as defensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Jauron then jumped into his first head-coaching gig with the Bears before the Lions hired him as their defensive coordinator in 2004. He also served as interim head coach in Detroit for five games of the 2005 season, going 1-4.

Following his stint as head coach in Buffalo, he rounded off his coaching career with brief tenures as a senior assistant and defensive backs coach for the Philadelphia Eagles (2010) and defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns (2011-12).

As a player Jauron was selected by Detroit in the fourth round of the 1973 NFL Draft out of Yale.

A Pro Bowl selection in 1974, he recorded 25 interceptions – including two returned for touchdowns – in 100 career games with the Lions (1973-77) and Bengals (1978-80).