Pookie
December-6th-2007, 10:45 AM
Don't know if this has been posted...slightly lengthy but worth the read.
Taylor fallout chills the bones
http://www.suntimes.com/sports/mariotti/683686,mariotti120507a.article
December 6, 2007
BY JAY MARIOTTI (inbox@suntimes.com) Sun-Times Columnist
LANDOVER, Md. -- The horror of murder, the vulnerability of 21st-century life, the rush to judgment by look-at-me media, the over-the-top passion of hero worship in sports -- it all converged on a cold, snowy evening in the Washington suburbs. Sean Taylor's jersey number, 21, had been painted days ago in the grass outside FedEx Field, part of a memorial where fans placed burgundy-and-gold flowers, photos, teddy bears and emotional messages for the slain football player.
But Wednesday night, the mourning site couldn't be found. Three inches of snow had buried any traces of 21. ``It's gone. It's not here no more,'' a stadium worker in a van said as the storm swirled.
'Twas the lonely eve of a visit by the Bears, just another game in a dark season for the Redskins. Slowly, talk shows are changing conversations to the shaky future of Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs, who needed to be at his sharpest last Sunday in a Win One For Sean moment and blew the ending because he didn't know a simple rule about timeouts. But when the lights turn on tonight, the shooting death of Taylor again will hang over the 91,000-seat stadium.
And I'm still having difficulty absorbing some of what I've seen, read and heard the last 10 days and nights. The reaction has been that bizarre, that sensational, that irresponsible, that disproportionate to the bigger world.
Before the blood had dried in Taylor's south Florida home two Mondays ago, some of my media colleagues -- people I've known and respected for years -- lost their friggin' minds. Rather than wait for the investigative process, they jumped to immediate conclusions about the perpetrators and their motives without having any answers to two important questions: (1) Who? and (2) Why? Columnist Jason Whitlock, writing for FoxSports.com, said Taylor was a victim of ``the Black KKK.'' The nationally prominent Michael Wilbon, of the Washington Post and ESPN, conveyed in an Internet chat room that he wasn't surprised by the shooting, connecting it to a troubled reputation that Taylor -- by most accounts -- was successfully changing in recent years. ``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,'' Wilbon wrote. They weren't alone, with talk hosts taking the same stereotypical path without any solid foundation on which to comment.
Turns out this wasn't about premeditated murder. Turns out it wasn't the work of evil people from Taylor's past who supposedly had been ``targeting him for three years now," as Taylor's longtime friend and former University of Miami teammate, Antrel Rolle, had claimed. Said Rolle, assuming: ``I know he lived his life pretty much scared every day of his life when he was down in Miami because those people were targeting him.'' No, far from the wild gangland speculation, this apparently was a simple burglary gone awry. Four young men between ages 17 and 20 -- all of whom with prior arrest records, one of whom reportedly had cut Taylor's lawn, another of whom had a cousin who dated Taylor's sister -- thought Taylor was out of town with the Redskins and figured no one was home in an affluent Miami suburb. When they found him there, with his fiancee and their 18-month-old daughter, one of them shot him twice in his bedroom, hitting him in the upper thigh.
``Murder or shooting someone was not their initial motive," Miami-Dade County police Director Robert Parker said.
Wednesday, the attorney for Eric Rivera, the 17-year-old accused of shooting Taylor, indicated his client is willing to cooperate with prosecutors. Rivera and three others have been charged with first-degree felony murder and armed burglary. They will be arraigned later this month.
The Black KKK, this was not.
There is a place for activism in journalism, of course, but never in any reckless context. This was the senseless, unplanned death of a 24-year-old athlete who had mellowed since his daughter's birth. Yes, Taylor had well-chronicled issues in the past: a stonewalling of the Washington media, an incident in which he spat on a Tampa Bay player. Back in 2005, he made the mistake of visiting a friend in a rough area and parking two new all-terrain vehicles. When the vehicles were stolen, he confronted some young people -- who blitzed his vehicle with gunfire. He was charged with aggravated assault.
But when so many of Taylor's teammates swear he was a changed man, should we in the media assume he wasn't? A friend of Taylor's father, Otis Wallace, said at the Monday memorial service in Miami that the media should be ``getting a small lesson in grace and humility'' then added, ``They should be ashamed.'' There was loud applause for Wallace, mayor of Florida City, Fla. I'm still awaiting a response from Whitlock, but all I see on the FoxSports.com site is: ``EDITOR'S NOTE: This column originally appeared Wednesday, two days before Friday's arrests of four men in the shooting death of Sean Taylor.''
I understand the grief that engulfs people when a young, talented athlete is gunned down. Taylor was about to enjoy an outstanding career with a team, the Redskins, that has a religious-like hold on its community. But let's keep in mind he was a football player -- a very good, hard-hitting football player. The depth of the mourning in Washington suggests he was something much bigger. Grieve, cry and mourn over the fragility and tragedy of life. That said, let's keep his death in its proper frame, as Redskins offensive lineman Chris Samuels managed to do amid a torturous time for the team.
``We have to get a hold of our youth and do the best we can to lead these kids in the right direction," Samuels said. ``Parents need to step up and do a better job. Role models need to step up and do a better job. I've got to get out this summer and do some things in the community. We just need a lot of people to stand up because it's such a tragedy. Sean did not have to die.''
Taylor's locker is a Plexiglas-covered shrine to his memory. There is a picture of his daughter, a playbook, a gameball, his helmet, his stool, his shoes. Emotion will swirl again in the stadium, but between the uncertainty surrounding Gibbs and the Redskins' second game in five days, the scene could become wearisome quickly.
``We've gone through some extremely tough times together,'' said Gibbs, who apologized for not knowing the rule that led to a penalty and game-winning field goal. ``This was unchartered territory for me, for sure.''
``You don't know which side of the meter they'll be on,'' said Bears defensive end Adewale Ogunleye. ``I know they want to win badly for their teammate.''
Eventually, everyone will move on. Life works that way, as the chilly, empty scene outside the stadium suggested Wednesday night. But as I stood there in the snow, taxi waiting, a thought tugged at me: We need to get a grip about athletes, idolatry and the assumption we know these people when we really don't.
***********************************
Random observation: Wilbon really is gay.
Taylor fallout chills the bones
http://www.suntimes.com/sports/mariotti/683686,mariotti120507a.article
December 6, 2007
BY JAY MARIOTTI (inbox@suntimes.com) Sun-Times Columnist
LANDOVER, Md. -- The horror of murder, the vulnerability of 21st-century life, the rush to judgment by look-at-me media, the over-the-top passion of hero worship in sports -- it all converged on a cold, snowy evening in the Washington suburbs. Sean Taylor's jersey number, 21, had been painted days ago in the grass outside FedEx Field, part of a memorial where fans placed burgundy-and-gold flowers, photos, teddy bears and emotional messages for the slain football player.
But Wednesday night, the mourning site couldn't be found. Three inches of snow had buried any traces of 21. ``It's gone. It's not here no more,'' a stadium worker in a van said as the storm swirled.
'Twas the lonely eve of a visit by the Bears, just another game in a dark season for the Redskins. Slowly, talk shows are changing conversations to the shaky future of Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs, who needed to be at his sharpest last Sunday in a Win One For Sean moment and blew the ending because he didn't know a simple rule about timeouts. But when the lights turn on tonight, the shooting death of Taylor again will hang over the 91,000-seat stadium.
And I'm still having difficulty absorbing some of what I've seen, read and heard the last 10 days and nights. The reaction has been that bizarre, that sensational, that irresponsible, that disproportionate to the bigger world.
Before the blood had dried in Taylor's south Florida home two Mondays ago, some of my media colleagues -- people I've known and respected for years -- lost their friggin' minds. Rather than wait for the investigative process, they jumped to immediate conclusions about the perpetrators and their motives without having any answers to two important questions: (1) Who? and (2) Why? Columnist Jason Whitlock, writing for FoxSports.com, said Taylor was a victim of ``the Black KKK.'' The nationally prominent Michael Wilbon, of the Washington Post and ESPN, conveyed in an Internet chat room that he wasn't surprised by the shooting, connecting it to a troubled reputation that Taylor -- by most accounts -- was successfully changing in recent years. ``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,'' Wilbon wrote. They weren't alone, with talk hosts taking the same stereotypical path without any solid foundation on which to comment.
Turns out this wasn't about premeditated murder. Turns out it wasn't the work of evil people from Taylor's past who supposedly had been ``targeting him for three years now," as Taylor's longtime friend and former University of Miami teammate, Antrel Rolle, had claimed. Said Rolle, assuming: ``I know he lived his life pretty much scared every day of his life when he was down in Miami because those people were targeting him.'' No, far from the wild gangland speculation, this apparently was a simple burglary gone awry. Four young men between ages 17 and 20 -- all of whom with prior arrest records, one of whom reportedly had cut Taylor's lawn, another of whom had a cousin who dated Taylor's sister -- thought Taylor was out of town with the Redskins and figured no one was home in an affluent Miami suburb. When they found him there, with his fiancee and their 18-month-old daughter, one of them shot him twice in his bedroom, hitting him in the upper thigh.
``Murder or shooting someone was not their initial motive," Miami-Dade County police Director Robert Parker said.
Wednesday, the attorney for Eric Rivera, the 17-year-old accused of shooting Taylor, indicated his client is willing to cooperate with prosecutors. Rivera and three others have been charged with first-degree felony murder and armed burglary. They will be arraigned later this month.
The Black KKK, this was not.
There is a place for activism in journalism, of course, but never in any reckless context. This was the senseless, unplanned death of a 24-year-old athlete who had mellowed since his daughter's birth. Yes, Taylor had well-chronicled issues in the past: a stonewalling of the Washington media, an incident in which he spat on a Tampa Bay player. Back in 2005, he made the mistake of visiting a friend in a rough area and parking two new all-terrain vehicles. When the vehicles were stolen, he confronted some young people -- who blitzed his vehicle with gunfire. He was charged with aggravated assault.
But when so many of Taylor's teammates swear he was a changed man, should we in the media assume he wasn't? A friend of Taylor's father, Otis Wallace, said at the Monday memorial service in Miami that the media should be ``getting a small lesson in grace and humility'' then added, ``They should be ashamed.'' There was loud applause for Wallace, mayor of Florida City, Fla. I'm still awaiting a response from Whitlock, but all I see on the FoxSports.com site is: ``EDITOR'S NOTE: This column originally appeared Wednesday, two days before Friday's arrests of four men in the shooting death of Sean Taylor.''
I understand the grief that engulfs people when a young, talented athlete is gunned down. Taylor was about to enjoy an outstanding career with a team, the Redskins, that has a religious-like hold on its community. But let's keep in mind he was a football player -- a very good, hard-hitting football player. The depth of the mourning in Washington suggests he was something much bigger. Grieve, cry and mourn over the fragility and tragedy of life. That said, let's keep his death in its proper frame, as Redskins offensive lineman Chris Samuels managed to do amid a torturous time for the team.
``We have to get a hold of our youth and do the best we can to lead these kids in the right direction," Samuels said. ``Parents need to step up and do a better job. Role models need to step up and do a better job. I've got to get out this summer and do some things in the community. We just need a lot of people to stand up because it's such a tragedy. Sean did not have to die.''
Taylor's locker is a Plexiglas-covered shrine to his memory. There is a picture of his daughter, a playbook, a gameball, his helmet, his stool, his shoes. Emotion will swirl again in the stadium, but between the uncertainty surrounding Gibbs and the Redskins' second game in five days, the scene could become wearisome quickly.
``We've gone through some extremely tough times together,'' said Gibbs, who apologized for not knowing the rule that led to a penalty and game-winning field goal. ``This was unchartered territory for me, for sure.''
``You don't know which side of the meter they'll be on,'' said Bears defensive end Adewale Ogunleye. ``I know they want to win badly for their teammate.''
Eventually, everyone will move on. Life works that way, as the chilly, empty scene outside the stadium suggested Wednesday night. But as I stood there in the snow, taxi waiting, a thought tugged at me: We need to get a grip about athletes, idolatry and the assumption we know these people when we really don't.
***********************************
Random observation: Wilbon really is gay.