Sean Taylor Dead At 24
I generally try to keep my passion for sports and, more specifically, the Washington Redskins, removed from these pages, but today one of the single greatest tragedies in National Football League history befell my beloved hometown team. Sean Taylor, perhaps my favorite defensive player of all-time, was shot in the leg at his home during a break-in in the early hours of Monday morning and died this morning in a Miami hospital after losing massive amounts of blood sustained from the wound to his femoral artery. No NFL player has died during the season since 1971, let alone one as critical to his team as Sean Taylor has been over the past four seasons.
Taylor was the heart and soul of the Redskins defense and was one of the most talented defensive players in the NFL. Drafted fifth overall in the 2004 NFL draft after a dominant collegiate career at the University of Miami, Taylor immediately established himself as one of the NFL’s most promising defensive talents and could have gone down as one of the greatest safeties of all time. His presence alone could shape an entire football game, and as a Redskins season ticket holder (and having attended the 2003 National Championship between Miami and Ohio State) I watched him establish himself as one of the most brilliant defensive talents football has ever seen. His absence over the last two games due to a knee injury sustained against Philadelphia two weeks ago is a primary reason for the Redskins current three-game losing streak, and this an unfathomably crippling blow to the team both on and off the field.
Surrounded by off-field controversy during the early years of his career, this season saw Taylor mature both as a person and a team leader after the birth of his first child. “It’s hard to expect a man to grow up overnight,” Redskins running back and Taylor’s college teammate at Miami told ESPN. “But ever since he had his child, it was like a new Sean, and everybody around here knew it. He was always smiling, always happy, always talking about his child.”
Words cannot do justice to this unspeakable tragedy (nor can music). I had my fill of DC this break and there’s a lot going on in New York this weekend, but I’ll be driving down for the Skins home game against the Bills this Sunday to pay my respects. Today the world lost one of the greatest athletic talents I’ve ever had the privilege to see perform, and he will be sorely missed by all those who ever had the pleasure of watching this young man play.