Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post and ESPN’s “PTI” wrote an interesting column in the wake of Sean Taylor’s death.
I wasn’t surprised in the least when I heard the news Monday morning that Sean Taylor had been shot in his home by an intruder. Angry? Yes. Surprised? Not even a little. It was only in June 2006 that Taylor, originally charged with a felony, pleaded no contest to assault and battery charges after brandishing a gun during a battle over who took his all-terrain vehicles in Florida. After that, an angry crew pulled up on Taylor and his boys and pumped at least 15 bullets into his sport-utility vehicle. So why would anybody be surprised? Had it been Shawn Springs, I would have been stunned. But not Sean Taylor.
Coincidence? We have no idea, not yet anyway. Could have been a random act, a break-in, something that happens every day in America, something that could happen to any one of us no matter how safe we think our neighborhood is. Could have been just that. But would it surprise me if it was more than that, if there was a distinct reason Taylor was sleeping with a machete under his bed? A machete. Even though his attorney and friend Richard Sharpstein says his instincts tell him “this was not a murder or a hit,” would it stun me if Taylor was specifically targeted? Not one bit.
…But what they do share is dying too soon, unnecessarily so, while young and athletic, seemingly on top of the world. Though we’re likely to struggle in great frustration to understand the circumstances of how Taylor left so soon, how dare we not put forth an honest if sometimes uncomfortable effort to examine his life in some greater context than football.
Wilbon makes a great point in his final paragraph that some want to gloss over more underlining issues when an athlete dies. We should remember that Taylor was becoming a great player and a man who was starting to turn his lifestyle around for the better. But the fact of the matter is that he didn’t change quickly enough. A young man lost his life and therefore, it’s a tragedy. It’s a tragedy that someone lost a son, father, brother and a friend. The bigger tragedy, however, is if another athlete with a similar background doesn’t view Taylor’s death (random or not) as a cautionary tale.
