SEAN TAYLOR #21 - 1983 - 2007 R.I.P.

The Washington Redskins suffered their most brutal loss of the season today when free safety Sean Taylor died at a Miami hospital early this morning after being shot in his home. While some in the media, particularly Micheal Wlbon and Leonard Shapiro of the Washington Post, will try to impugn the memory of Sean Taylor by saying that his lifestyle brought on this tragedy, most fans and I will cherish the short time we got to enjoy the enthusiasm and tenacity with which he played the game. Taylor had unbelievale athletic talent and was really beginning to come into his own as an elite player. He was a ferocious tackler that instilled fear in all but the most iron-willed receivers. He was the backbone of the Washington secondary.

There is no denying that Sean had trouble when he came into the league and that most of that trouble was self-inflicted. However, when you listen to his teammates and coaches talk about him now, you are given a picture of a man in the midst of a drastic lifestyle change. He had matured as a player and, according to his friends on and off the field, as a man. Most credit the fact that he had recently become a father as the catalyst for his newfound maturity and sense of responsibility. The man had a great future ahead of him.

Wilbon and Shapiro, with a crass shamelessness that goes beyond understanding, seem to believe the idea of "once a thug, always a thug." Wilbon states in a chat after the news broke about the shooting: "I know how I feel about Taylor, and this latest news isn't surprising in the least, not to me. Whether this incident is or isn't random, Taylor grew up in a violent world, embraced it, claimed it, loved to run in it and refused to divorce himself from it. He ain't the first and won't be the last. We have no idea what happened, or if what we know now will be revised later. It's sad, yes, but hardly surprising." Both of these journalists seem to think the warm fuzzy feelings coming from the team are the Washington Redskins media machine hard at work. That this tragedy was simply a matter of time. That, as Shapiro put it, "the so-called new-Sean" doesn't fit his past image. The kicker is that both of these bastards seem to disbelieve the testimonies of Taylor's personal changes from teammates and coaches because Taylor himself refused to talk to the media and discuss his personal life; didn't explain himself to them, the avatars of moral righteousness. Given the way the media treated him in his first couple of seasons, his reticence is hardly surprising.

The bottom line here is that another young man, full of potential, was the victim of a senseless crime. It's a sad day.

Rest in Peace Sean. You will be sorely missed.