NFL VI

[Space Bandito]

Like I said before all the details need to come out. Hopefully they will find who shot him. Sad.

[Stego]

Like I said before all the details need to come out. Hopefully they will find who shot him. Sad.

I don't care about the details. It's none of our business.

I just care that an immensely talented young father was murdered in his bedroom. I am terrified that this will lead to more gun sales. And more gun violence.

[Kel]

Damn. I was hoping he would pull through.

[Greywolf2375]

Very sad that another young man with his future in front of him, NFL or not, has lost his life and that his child has lost her father. This was the second break in at the house in just over a week, from the first one a kitchen knife had been left on the bed.

[Mya Stone]

How tremendously sad.

[Daeric]

Very sad news indeed

It's disgraceful that they haven't addressed the issue of the turf at that field. it's been terrible since day one. Rumor has it they are looking at installing the same turf west virginia recently installed. The rooneys need to get over their fascination with natural grass. It's embarrassing. The stadium is too low and too close to the river for grass.

The major problem last night was the fact they had installed a new layer of pitch because of about 4 games already on it that weekend and then got the misfortune of it downporing.

[drawkcabi]

I've loved the organization all my life, the Redskins were my grandfather's team, I would have been sad if it had been a player from any team or any person in general, but this just really makes me heartsick. I feel so bad for his family and the Redskins players/organization members who were his family just as much. I can't imagine what the players are going through and that they don't even have until Sunday to come to terms with this but have to play a game on Thursday...that just sucks. I don't know how they're going to manage.

R.I.P. Sean Taylor :cry:

[Rockroi]

Sean Taylor:

There is another side to this story that will eventually come out, but I really don't care about that. Taylor was 24 years old, the rest of his life ahead of him, with a daughter. He was killed through a series of bad decisions, most of them probably not his own. To be awoken in the middle of the night and shot in your bed is terrible. Apparently the people who did this broke into the home 10 days earleir and put a knife on his bed. When they came this time, they cut the phone lines first.

What a sin.

Miami-Pitt:

The weather was bad, the surface far worse. The Steelers did not dig up the old surface before laying down the new one. This caused absolutely no drainage so the watter just soaked into the top (newer) layer and turned it into one giant sponge. I really cannot critisize either team because it was not their fault. The playing surface made it impossible to have a competitive game.

[add-on]

Terrible news.

RIP

[DanteGabriel]

My condolences to Skins fans, what a terrible thing to happen. It seemed like he was recovering when I heard a news update last night. To die so young, with so much still before you! I feel sad for his girlfriend and his baby daughter. I hope his killer is brought to justice.

[Whiskeyjack]

Horrible news about Sean Taylor.

I can't imagine what the players are going through and that they don't even have until Sunday to come to terms with this but have to play a game on Thursday...that just sucks. I don't know how they're going to manage.

They don't play this Thursday. They have a Sunday game this week, and play on Thursday in week 14. I doubt the extra few days will help much though.

[Jaxom 1974]

Even though I like Pittsburgh, I have to admit, this would have been awesome.

Would have been a nice extra nail in the coffin that is MNF wouldn't it?

ETA: That Sean Taylor news is horrible. Agree with the others that details are meaningless now. Just find the killer(s) and let the law be done.

Could there be any connection to the other athletes that have been robbed recently though?

[Swordfish]

RIP, Sean Taylor.

[Swordfish]

Very sad news indeed

The major problem last night was the fact they had installed a new layer of pitch because of about 4 games already on it that weekend and then got the misfortune of it downporing.

Sort of.

But the root cause is still that the original turf has been garbage from the beginning, so they have to take those kind of drastic measures all the time.

And it's been like that since the stadium was built, it should have been addressed before now.

Two good things come out of this game, we squeaked out the win, and hopefully tit will shame the rooneys into doing something about it. DGMW, I LOVE the rooneys. They are 100% class, and I can rarely find anything to criticize them for, but this is ridiculous.

[Jaime L]

I'm sorry if I ramble here. I'm gonna be all over the place here, I know. I've been trying to find the right way to articulate this for the last couple hours, to make it known why I care so much about someone I've never met, someone who's never done any great acts in this world, someone who plays a game for a living. Why his death matters so much to me.

There's just so many thoughts that have flashed through my head the last 24 hours regarding everything surrounding Sean Taylor. I can't stop thinking about him. There's such a lingering sadness that surrounds the whole thing, so many aspects to the man which make this so completely and throughly horrible in every way. I'll try to make meaning of it.

For the second morning in a row, woke up to a tragedy and an absolute blow. The reports last night said Sean Taylor was showing positive signs, that he squeezed a doctor's hand and was able to show facial movement. I thought he'd made it through the worst of it.

I just feel so horrible for his family and his little girl especially who'll never know her father. Everyone around him said that her birth had changed him, made him a better man. He'd had a rough past, associating with the wrong people, run-ins with the law after his ATVs were stolen and brandishing a firearm. He came into the league very immature, 20 years old, reckless with how he lived his life and extremely guarded with those he let into his inner circle. It was believed he'd turned the corner over the last 18 months, however, that the dark cloud that hung over his head (the one that caused LaVarr Arrington to name him the Grim Reaper) was gone. He was smiling now, at peace with himself and those around him in a way he never was before. His teammates were finally able to get to know this man who had never revealed any of himself, who was a terror on the football field but absolutely silent off of it. And somewhere along the way Gibbs and Gregg Williams had become like father figures to Sean. They were both particularly choked up when they talked about Sean, glassy eyes staring straight ahead as they tried to vocalize exactly what their relationship with him meant and failing. Saying how it doesn't matter if he ever plays again, just that he be ok...and meaning it. It wasn't just a typical coach-player thing, especially with Williams, you could see it on his face...it was like a father talking about his son.

What makes it so much of a tragedy, as Bittersteel brought up, is that it really felt like the worst of his past was now behind him, that he'd finally grown into a man. He now had a little girl to take care of and was engaged to be married. It felt like all the bad stuff was truly behind him, that he'd made a clean break from it all and that he I don't know. It recalls that line that's repeated in Magnolia: We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us. It resonates here and I keep thinking of it. There's such a chilling ramification of it, that you can never truly escape what you were or the things you've done.

And what makes it such a blow is that Sean Taylor had the chance to be among the best to ever play his position. That's not hyperbole so much as simple recognition of a man who had once in a generation ability. There was never any question watching him that we were seeing one of the most gifted athletes to ever wear the Redskins uniform, there was a kind of frightening brute force athleticism that showed in stark contrast to what we think of as classically athletic: running fast and jumping high. Not that he couldn't do both: He's the fastest man of his size I'd ever seen, appearing on the screen as a blur, blowing up ball-carriers before I even noticed him. But he combined that with a raw, imposing physicality, the ability to level without any serious effort at all. The only question would be whether he'd ever grasp all the nuances of the game, play under control, fully dedicate himself to his craft. This season was the first where he began to put it all together. The first that told me he was continuing to evolve past prior plateaus. He'd been the Redskins best player for a couple seasons now, but this year he became a force, a scheme alterer. He was changing the way wide receivers played and offensive coordinators called plays. There were few things that I was looking forward to more, as a Redskin fan, than seeing Taylor continue to grow year after year. Seeing what #21 had become this season, it no longer seemed that big of a leap to think that he might actually live up to his considerable potential. The mental aspect was finally there..those mistakes of aggressiveness he made early in his career were replaced by a headier patience. I know this because I watched him closer than any most, I grabbed a hold of every news story about him I could get my hands on, because I'd never seen anyone like him before and now I wonder if I ever will again.

And it's just such a waste. All those things that mattered so much, all those aspirations for a particularly bright future, all those imaginings of what this man could be, the way I believed we'd talk about him 20 years from now...it's all for nothing because he's dead at 24. And the Redskins lose. And the NFL loses. And his wife to be and little daughter lose most of all, all because someone felt that taking his life made some kind of sense. This is what is meant when Dan Snyder says "This is the worst imaginable tragedy." It is. And it's why the shock and the heartache goes on and on for a man I've never met. For me, personally, there is so much this murder says about the world and none of it good.

[the silent speaker]

his little girl especially who'll never know her father.

Oh but she will. Stories about him will be a big part of her childhood, and she had a year of being loved by him and no one can take that away.

RIP, Sean Taylor.

I move that the subtitle of this thread be amended to read this and this alone.

[Rockroi]

Well put, Jaime.

I think the title of the thread should stay because for all but the past quarter of it we're talking about... well, a game.

[Kalbear]

Aw, man.

RIP, Sean Taylor.

[BLU-RAY]

Dammit. I thought he was going to pull through as of last night. That's an absolute shame.

RIP Sean Taylor.

[Week]

Really nice post Jaime. Such a waste .