Atholton Football Coach, Former NFL Player Dies at 36

The former NFL player and beloved head football coach at Atholton High School passed away recently.

Damion Cook died Friday, June 26, from a heart attack, according to multiple reports. He was 36.

Born in Tennessee, Cook played college football and earned a degree in hospitality management at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Fla.; in 2001, he entered the NFL as an undrafted offensive tackle and played 26 games over several seasons, with the Baltimore Ravens, Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns.

One of his former teammates at Bethune-Cookman—Detroit Lion Rashean Mathis—described Cook as a “gentle giant...with one of the greatest personalities I had ever seen.”

In fact, Cook gained fame for his role as Ray Lewis rallying the Ravens in a skit for the HBO show Hard Knocks in 2001.

From 2011 to 2013, Cook was a strength and conditioning coach at Michigan before returning to Maryland for a position in the schools, according to a statement from Bethune-Cookman.

He began working with the Howard County Public School System in 2013 as a mental health counselor and in 2014 took on head coaching of the Atholton High School football team, according to the News-Journal.

“He was a great role model,” Howard County Schools Superintendent Renee Foose said.

“You just wanted to be around the guy because he was such a great person,” one of his Atholton players told The Baltimore Sun, which reported he lived in Randallstown with his wife and children.

On Friday, Cook suffered a heart attack while in the process of moving houses, according to the News-Journal.

The students at Atholton plan to dedicate the fall season to their former coach, who was ”larger than life” and “so much more than the game of football,” Atholton Athletic Director Beth DeFrances told Fox 45.

Cook leaves behind wife JaNiece and children Mikah, Lucas and Brianna, according to a statement from Bethune-Cookman.