| Matthew Gordon. 29th November, 2007 - 2:26 pm
 The tragic death of Redskins safety Sean Taylor had all the ingredients that could evoke sadness: he was young, he had a bright future, he had a loving family and he was playing his favorite game in front of millions of viewers every week. Friends, teammates and fans have been mourning non-stop in the couple days since it happened, with no one really sure as to how to deal with it. I know I, for one, am still struggling with the idea that it could even happen. I feel like I could turn on the Redskins/Bills game this Sunday and watch him unleash another massive hit, except that I know I can’t.
Taylor’s death at the young age of 24 feels sudden, jarring and unfair. It makes us undergo an incomprehensible range of emotions, grief most prominent among them. What it also does, though, is remind us of a couple things, one unquestionably negative and one inspiringly positive.
With no suspect yet, there’s no concrete motive. However, Cardinals cornerback Antrel Rolle, a close friend of Taylor’s, may have added an important insight, chalking the event largely up to jealousy. The Associated Press recently reported that Rolle said, “They say it was a burglary. It absolutely was not a burglary. Down South, where we’re from, there were many people talking to Sean, a lot of jealousy, a lot of angry people.” If this ends up being the case, it doesn’t bode well for a part of humanity.
I feel safe in saying that most football fans were jealous of Taylor in some small way. Playing the game, being a star, having a family, not having to worry about money… these are the kinds of things kids dream about. That’s not what this is about though. People don’t hate Taylor for what he had and what he did, they idolize him for it. Everyone with his jersey and everyone at Redskins games was thrilled with him, ecstatic for him, glad that he’d become such a good player and, more importantly, such a good person.
It’s sickening to think that there are people in this world whose envy can motivate them to do horrible things. To take another human being’s life is one of the worst things anyone can do. Until the murderer is found, if the murderer is found, all we’ll have to go by is the little we know, much of which is grounded in the notion that some people out there can’t just be happy when someone does well. There’s really not much more I can say.
That was never something Taylor did though. For everyone mentioning his troubles in the past, it should be noted that he never murdered anyone, raped anyone or did anything else particularly heinous. His offenses, alleged and real, consisted of skipping a rookie symposium, a few late hits, a drunk driving arrest and brandishing a gun. Skipping a rookie symposium isn’t a reflection of his character, but rather a reflection that he was immature, an equivalent event to one of his friends who was still at school skipping class. Late hits are to football as flagrant fouls are to basketball, nothing flattering but certainly not a reason to question someone’s integrity. Taylor was acquitted of his drunk driving charge. In light of what just happened, we all have to wonder whether pro athletes carrying guns for protection is really that bad.
If there’s something good that can be taken from this, it’s a reminder that the NFL is more than a group of highly-paid young men who get together every Sunday to play a game and practice a few times a week. It’s a tightly-knit community full of people who care about each other and about their fans, and who are willing to step up when tragedy strikes. In this case, owners, coaches and players reached out to the Redskins.
The Broncos and lost cornerback Darrent Williams at age 24 to a drive-by shooting early New Year’s Day. The 49ers lost lineman Thomas Herrion at age 23 to a heart attack in August 2005. Both were young men who were enthusiastic about the opportunities they’d received to play the game at the highest possible level – both were right around Taylor’s age. It wasn’t surprising when Broncos owner Pat Bowlen and 49ers coach Mike Nolan, among others, reached out to the Redskins team in the face of their loss, but it sure was good to know.
Let’s all remember Sean Taylor when we watch the games this weekend, knowing that if he had the choice, he’d do anything to be there with his teammates and with everyone who likes watching good football. Let’s also remember that something so horrible has the capability to bring people together. |
