Sean Taylor: Young, Black and No Longer With Us

The glaring details that still haunt me about Sean Taylor's death are the violent way he died and his young age: getting gunned down at 24.

It's an occurrence that has become all too common in the black community. Saying a young black male was shot to death is becoming the equivalent of saying, "Hey, did you know the sky is blue?"

The subject of Al Qaeda and terrorism consumes much of our nation's political talk, but what about the terrorists living in our backyards? The terrorists who made sleeping in his own home in suburban Miami a fatal unsafe decision for Taylor.

He went to college. He got a job that earned him millions and by several accounts had a bright career ahead of him. By its true definition, Taylor was living the 'American Dream.' But it was all blown away by a gun shot wound.

Taylor's death marks the second time this year that a bullet has snatched away that dream from a young, black NFL player.

The first bright day of 2007 turned dark for Darrent Williams, a Denver Broncos cornerback, who was murdered in a drive-by shooting near a Denver nightclub.

Sure Williams and Taylor were rich and famous, but in the end it didn't matter. It's tragic, it's senseless, and it's unnecessary. So why does it keep happening?

There have been studies done concluding that black men are more than six times likely to be murdered than their white counterparts. Center for Disease Control reports around 4,000 blacks are killed by guns in our country.

The famous and rich ones, like Taylor and Williams, will grab national headlines and attention. Yet in the end of the day they are part of a growing (silent) epidemic. How many more will have to die before our nation gives the same attention it's giving Iraq to the war that's going on in our very own streets.

How Will Sean Taylor Be Remembered?

We don't know what happened other than he was shot by an intruder at his home in Miami. Yet most news stories released shortly after his death made it a point to discuss Taylor's run-ins with the law and troubles on the field -- including the seven fines he'd received for late hits and other infractions, a $25,000 fine he incurred for skipping a mandatory rookie symposium after the Redskins drafted him in 2004, and the incident where he was accused of brandishing a gun during a fight in 2005.

Almost as if to say, "he had it coming."

Some journalist have taken a "live by the sword, die by the sword" approach to writing about Sean Taylor's life.

Shortly after the shooting, Washington Post columnist and ESPN personality Michael Wilbon responded with the following in the paper's online chat session:

I know how I feel about Taylor, and this latest news isn't surprising in the least, not to me. Whether this incident is or isn't random, Taylor grew up in a violent world, embraced it, claimed it, loved to run in it and refused to divorce himself from it. He ain't the first and won't be the last. We have no idea what happened, or if what we know now will be revised later. It's sad, yes, but hardly surprising.

Just in case once wasn't enough, Wilbon repeated those sentiments in a recent column:

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.

You see, just because Taylor was changing his life, don't assume the people who pumped 15 bullets into his SUV a couple of years ago were in the process of changing theirs. Maybe it was them, maybe not. Maybe it was somebody else who had a beef with Taylor a year earlier, maybe not. Maybe it was retribution or envy or some volatile combination.

Also, in a column titled 'Taylor's Death Is Tragic but Not Surprising,' Washington Post sports columnist Leonard Shapiro wrote: "Could anyone honestly say they never saw this coming? You'd have to be blind not to considering Taylor's checkered past. It was only a few months after he was drafted, when we got something of an inkling of what sort of young man the Redskins were selecting out of the University of Miami with the fifth overall selection in 2004."

Was Sean Taylor perfect? No. But who is? If you died tomorrow and the media had access to every soundbite and colorful moment in your life, chances are there would be a few less-than-perfect details surfacing in your obit knocking you down a few notches on the perfect pole.

Seam Taylor

By the accounts of his friends and teammates, Sean Taylor had become a new man. He had turned is life around, staying out of trouble and focusing on what looked to be an emerging superstar career.

"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," Redskins running back Clinton Portis told reporters. "He was always smiling, always happy, always talking about his child."

Perhaps the greatest thing he could do is in death, becoming an example of why we must get back control of our communities. Discover why these senseless tragedies keep occurring and find a way to stop them.

So we can prevent one more unnecessary surgeon or police officer from having to explain to a mother, father or wife that their loved one is dead because some idiot decided to snuff out life.

So that some other child doesn't become another statistic wondering what time daddy is coming home when he in fact isn't.

More on Sean Taylor

Mourning the Football Star
Family, friends, teammates and the football community across the country mourn the loss of Taylor, the 24-year-old who died early Tuesday of a gunshot wound from an apparent intruder.

Antrel Rolle Says Taylor Was a Target
Sean Taylor's childhood friend and Arizona Cardinals cornerback Antrel Rolle doesn't think the Redskins star's death was the result of a burglary gone bad. Rolle says, "Down South, where we're from, there were many people targeting Sean, a lot of jealousy, a lot of angry people."

Young, Black and No Longer With Us
The glaring haunting details about Sean Taylor's death are the violent way he died and his young age: getting gunned down at the age of 24. An occurrence that is way too common in the black community. When is it going to stop?

Sean Taylor's Death: Another Statistic?
Almost without exception, every major city in America is seeing record numbers of young people – mostly African American males – die as a result of gun violence.

See No. 21's Greatest Hits
When you hear coaches and teammates talk about Sean Taylor, you get the sense that he was on the cusp of

becoming a phenomenal well-rounded safety. The proof is in the video clips.

Making Sense of Taylor's Death
It's hard to understand why someone so talented and so young isn't here with us anymore.

More News
Redskins' Saftety Sean Taylor Dies
Sean Taylor Shot in Miami

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