Jamain Stephens, a defensive lineman at Division II California University of Pennsylvania, died on Tuesday at the age of 20.
Stephens, the son of former Pittsburgh Steelers first-round pick Jamain Stephens, played in 32 games at Cal U.
Athletic director Karen Hjerpe said in a statement, “Jamain was such a wonderful student with a smile on his face every time you saw him. His personality was contagious and he made such a positive impact on everyone he met.”
The university did not list a cause of death in its official release. Stephens’ high school, Central Catholic in Pittsburgh, issued a statement Wednesday in which it had to walk back a Facebook post that attributed his cause of death to coronavirus complications. Nobody in the Stephens family has confirmed his cause of death, nor has the family issued a statement.
The school has updated its original Facebook post, deleting any mention of his cause of death.
“When we heard the news of Jamain Stephens’ death, we as a community were devastated,” said Brother Tony Baginski, FSC, principal of Central Catholic.
“He was well loved by everyone in our community, and in an effort to get the news out about his death in a timely manner, we mistakenly attributed his death without official confirmation on cause of death. We had obtained the information about his passing from close friends of Jamain, who reached out to us with the news. We apologize for this error, and this information has since been removed from our Facebook announcement dated 9/8/2020. At this time, we do not have official confirmation on his cause of death.
“Jamain was the embodiment of everything a Central Catholic student should be: kind, gentle, giving, faithful and a friend to all. We pray for Jamain and his friends and family during this terrible time.”