Why Has Sean Taylor's Death Resonated So Strongly With Redskins Fans?

On the Taylor thing, here it is. Sean Taylor is the single can't miss player we've ever had. Even back in the glory days, the Skins never had a guy like him. We always had these guys who strung a season together on a few lucky deep bombs to Gary Clark, or Ricky Sanders. On defense, we had some names, but they weren't phenoms, guys who were freaks (a college graduate who can't read but can sniff half of Columbia through his nose doesn't count). Sean Taylor was that for us and more. He was an icon that said, "perhaps we too deserv to have a freak on our team, a guy who shouldn't be able to do what he does". For the first time, we had a guy who inspired awe in men who had been the focus of that same kind of sports-fan awe their entire lives. Now, that is impressive. With Sean there was the hope that no matter how bad things got, we at least had a guy in our defensive backfield who would make a quarterback double-clutch, a receiver double-take, and an opposing crowd wince just before the crash cart was rolled out. I guess Sean Taylor was our ounce of respect in the age of Danny.
Clearly Sean was no angel, but the guy by all accounts was cleaning up his act, and was no dummy. This year he finally really lived up to his potential. He was leading the league in picks, wasn't making any rookie mistakes, and seemed to be the glue that hung the defense together. He went down with a knee injury, but we all knew that was only a temporary bump in the road for our young phenom. But then we all heard the news. He wasn't out at a club, or chasing someone with machete (okay, maybe he was). He was at home, doing his thing, and someone broke in his house and shot him. I think my buddy Justin put it best when he left me a message that day saying, "Someone killed are baby John. They broke in his house and killed our baby." Sean Taylor was our baby. He was our baby in that he represented the hopes and dreams of the franchise. He was all the things we couldn't be, or have during our years as skins fans. Maybe we should listen to all the Christian conservative nut-jobs and get back to our biblical roots. Its been a while since I've seen such a justification for a public stoning. The Danny could even sell it on pay per view. What do you think?


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