In a sad bit of news this morning, it was announced that Washington Redskins’ safety Sean Taylor died from a gunshot wound that damaged the key femoral artery in his leg. This comes almost a year after Denver Broncos cornerback Darrant Williams was killed in a drive-by shooting which was preceded by University of Miami defensive lineman Bryan Pata being shot to death several miles from Taylor's home.
Initial reports out of Miami believe that this shooting was a burglary attempt gone bad and could be linked to an incident eight days ago when it was discovered that someone pried open a front window going through drawers while leaving a kitchen knife on a bed at Taylor's home. Police don’t know if they are linked but are investigating.
Unfortunately Taylor is not new to issues with the law as he had a yearlong legal battle after he was accused in 2005 of pointing a gun at a man during a fight over allegedly stolen all-terrain vehicles near his home. He eventually pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors and was sentenced to 18 months' probation.
It didn’t take long for him to have issues with his NFL career either as he fired his agent soon after he was drafted and then skipped part of the NFL's mandatory rookie symposium and costing him a $25,000 fine. He was also charged with drunken driving while driving home late from a party during the season. The case was dismissed in court.
Not to be outdone by his off the field actions Taylor also had issues on the field being fined at least seven times for late hits, uniform violations and other infractions over his first three seasons, including a $17,000 penalty for spitting in the face of Tampa Bay running back Michael Pittman’s face in a 2006 playoff game.
Sean Taylor recently had a child and by all accounts this more than anything seemed to have put him on the right track. In fact good friend and team mate Clinton Portis was quoted as saying “It's hard to expect a man to grow up overnight," "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."
Taylor didn’t talk with the press much as he didn’t trust them but if there was a ray of hope that he in fact had changed from his earlier problems it might be in a statement he made during training camp this year…. "I just take this job very seriously." "It's almost like, you play a kid's game for a king's ransom. And if you don't take it serious enough, eventually one day you're going to say, 'Oh, I could have done this, I could have done that.'
One could only hope that he did all that he could have done with a life. Sadly we will never know as his life was cut short by another act of senseless violence.
