Sean Taylor

My alarm went off at 8:20 this morning and the first sound out of the radio was "Sean Taylor has died". About 10 seconds later, my phone vibrated with a text message saying the same. That's a terrible way to start your day.

When I first heard the news yesterday, I was upset. I like Sean Taylor the football player. I like the way he plays the game. He flies around the field, he appears on the screen out of nowhere and levels people, he plays hard and he had been improving himself as a person in the last few years. That much was evident from me just by only hearing his name for the positive things he did on the field as opposed to the beginning of his career when you would only hear about the negatives he did off the field.

Sean Taylor was not an angel. Sean Taylor was a player who would get in your face and do whatever he had to to throw you off your game. Unfortunately, this included spitting in opponents faces from time to time. That is a disgusting act and should/was not condoned.

I got to watch Sean Taylor play live twice last football season and in both games, he was the most fun player to watch on the field at all times. This season I've watched a fair share of Redskins games and seen him limp off the field on special teams only to be right back out there on defense. To me, it symbolized that he enjoyed playing football. He didn't have to play on special teams. He was the most feared safety in the game and with that rep, I don't think he necessarily had anything left to prove. But he did it to help his team.

If I was asked last week who my favorite player in the NFL was right now, I probably wouldn't say Sean Taylor. I really don't know who that player is. But I can say with full confidence that my favorite player to watch was Sean Taylor. Countless times I'd watch games only to see this person flash on the screen and make a huge play. I never saw him coming but I was always thinking, "where is Sean Taylor right now." I never had to wait long to get my answer. The guy was everywhere. Just an amazing talent.

I tend to root for professional athletes like Sean Taylor. Guys who make stupid mistakes but get a chance to turn their lives around. He was arrested for either threatening a man with a gun or beating a man with a gun who stole his ATVs. For that, he got probation. What he did was not commendable and was downright stupid, but he was given another chance. Since then, he had no run ins with the law. People around him say he had changed his life, especially since the birth of his daughter. I root for players like Sean Taylor because they serve as inspirations to millions of people around them. They were young and dumb, but they learned and improved themselves and could be role models for people in similar situations down the road.

Athletes have privileges that others do not but this does not make them immune to acts of stupidity.

I kept checking the sports stations and websites yesterday for whatever updates would come. I continued to expect the news to changed from him being in critical condition to having passed away. I was not shocked when I heard the news this morning. When people explained that getting shot in the femoral artery usually leads to death, I hoped that due to his peak physical condition, he would be able to pull through. Unfortunately, that was not the case. This is a terrible tragedy for his family, for his football family and all of us.

But what was Sean Taylor into, right? What got him killed? It's reported that a week ago, someone broke into his house, went through some drawers and left a knife on one of his pillows. Why? It makes you wonder what he may have gotten himself into. Selfishly, I hope all of the details come out one day so we can confirm all of the positive things his friends and family have said about the improvements in his life the past few years. I want to know just how necessary it was for his murderer to do what he did. Was it necessary?

When I first heard he was shot in an apparent burglary, I thought that maybe Sean Taylor came out of nowhere and tried to blindside the robber like some many of his opponents and took a bullet for that. There are reports he took out a machete to defend himself. I guess he didn't have a gun and why would he? He was on probation for a gun charge and he didn't want to run the risk of getting in trouble.

Lots of people have their own thoughts and feelings about this situation. An espn.com article reminds us that Sean Taylor is just another number for the worst statistic in America ("The leading cause of death for black men age 15-24 in America is homicide.") It's not often that a professional athlete falls into that category so the author also reminds us, "it's even more important that we remember there are thousands just like...."

It's hard to think anything will change as a result of this murder. It's likely that there will be some awareness about it for a few weeks, maybe months, but then he will be nothing more than a memory. Darrent Williams, a former Denver Bronco, was murdered last January. There was outcry then as well as raised awareness, but here we are again.

People are never going to stop fighting with each other but we can all get smarter. You don't have to murder someone to prove a point.

I'm no expert on street life, never even shot a gun before in my life and definitely am not from a tough neighborhood, so maybe writing this makes me a hypocrite or just plain ignorant. But I do know what a sense of community, of family, is and I have sympathy for anyone who has lost a piece of that...especially in such a violent way. A man ripped from his fiancé, his daughter, his parents but being shot in the leg, bleeding profusely and eventually succumbing to it all. What kind of last image is that for them?

A man who worked to improve himself for the sake of his family is taken down. To me, that is the biggest tragedy here. He was just starting to live a productive, meaningful life and it was all destroyed in a senseless act.

So as the news stations, websites, message boards and gchats all remember Sean Taylor today, let's not forget him tomorrow, next month, next year or next decade. Let's remember our sadness for him and his family today and forever so that the way we live our lives can influence everyone we come in contact with in the hope that it trickles down from person to person.