According to police, it appears certain that the cause of the sudden death of James Dungy, the 18-year-old son of Indianapolis Colts' head coach Tony Dungy, was suicide.

 On four levels my heart goes out to Tony Dungy and his wife.

 First, the death of a child is the most painful loss a human being can experience.

 Second, the death of a child by suicide inevitably causes even more pain, as parents engage in self-doubt at best and self-recrimination at worst.

 Third, the uninformed -- meaning most people -- at least initially wonder what the parents did wrong when a child commits suicide. So there is the possibility, if not likelihood, of humiliation added to the parents' terrible pain.

 Fourth, because Tony Dungy is so well known -- his team has the best record in professional football -- his son's suicide is known around the world.

 Given the widespread admiration for Tony Dungy as a man, not just as a coach -- he is reported to be a kind, socially active churchgoer who apparently devoted many hours to being with his son -- there is an important lesson to be learned from this tragedy.

 That lesson is this: There are children upon whom parents have had little influence. This is true for some wonderful children, and it is true of some troubled children and even of some who turn out to be evil adults.

 Now, it is almost axiomatic that parents usually play the major role in how their children turn out. I was the director of a college-age study institute where students came for a month at a time to live and study. The staff and I got to know these young people very well, and when we met the parents, we were rarely surprised. The finest ones usually had fine parents, and the unimpressive usually had unimpressive parents.

 Usually. But not always.

 There were times we were shocked at how different the parents were from their children. It is probable that every reader of this column knows at least one truly impressive person who came from a very difficult home. And many know the opposite: anti-social people who came from wonderful homes. Continued...