Rookie linebacker Fein, Baltimore Ravens hopeful, dies in Washington state

Rookie cut from Ravens dies in Washington

SEATTLE — Tony Fein, an Iraq war veteran and NFL rookie linebacker who played with the Baltimore Ravens during the preseason, has died of unexplained causes on the Kitsap Peninsula of Washington state.

Fein, 27, an undrafted rookie free agent from Mississippi, was taken by South Kitsap Fire & Rescue about 10 miles from the Port Orchard area to Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton, across Puget Sound from Seattle, and died in the emergency room Tuesday morning.

As of Wednesday morning, other circumstances of his death had not been released.

An autopsy won’t be conducted before Thursday and no report will be issued before all toxicology and other tests are complete, likely in six to eight weeks, said Allen G. Gerdes, Kitsap County chief deputy coroner.

Guy Dalrymple, a fire and rescue duty chief, did not immediately return a telephone call to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Fein, a native of Port Orchard, was released by the Ravens in their last major round of roster cuts on Sept. 5.

His agent, Milton D. Hobbs, a lawyer in Oxford, Miss., said he last spoke with Fein on Friday and since the death had talked with the Fein’s sister, mother and some friends. He would not discuss a possible cause of death.

“He was working out and we were discussing football opportunities. That was still his goal,” Hobbs said. “We talked about Canada.”

Some Canadian Football League teams had expressed interest in Fein before he joined the Ravens but there had been no contacts since he was cut, the agent said.

Fein was arrested on Aug. 23 and charged with misdemeanor assault on a police officer after an incident at a restaurant at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor in which the officer reportedly mistook his cellular telephone for a handgun. A trial was scheduled Wednesday, but prosecutors notified Fein’s attorney last Thursday that they planned to dismiss the case because of conflicting witness accounts, state’s attorney spokeswoman Marty Burns said.

Fein played quarterback for South Kitsap High School before graduating in 2000. At age 19 he enlisted in the Army and spent 2½ years in Iraq as a 19 Delta reconnaissance scout.

He later enrolled at Scottsdale, Ariz., Community College, became one of the nation’s top junior college recruits and played for Ole Miss in 2007 and 2008. In two seasons at Ole Miss, he had 136 tackles (77 solo) in 24 games, according to the school’s Web site.