Sports

Life for defender not Taylor-made

It's a perfect nightmare, what happened to Sean Taylor.

Having someone break into your home and attack you is an unimaginable terror for most, and for good reason. Where are we safe, if not at home?

I can't imagine there is a much worse feeling in the world than not feeling safe in one's abode.

Except of course, for grieving the loss of a loved one whose life was stolen away.

All of this almost gives Sean Taylor's story a tragic ending. But not quite.

The fact is, Sean Taylor got in and caused enough trouble in his life that it's very difficult not to look at his death cynically, to not feel that he wasn't in some way at fault, or partially responsible for what happened to him.

And that is the real tragedy here, that Taylor's gruesome death is so difficult to truly and deeply feel sorry for. I'm guilty (and feel guilty for it), and so are you.

Taylor makes for a poor martyr. He was charged with aggravated assault with a firearm and battery, and accused of pistol-whipping a man. He had drawn numerous fines in the NFL for dangerous behavior and last year was caught spitting on an opponent.

Miami Herald columnist Dan LeBatard noted that other University of Miami NFL alumni — not exactly the calmest crowd — were sometimes taken aback by Taylor's actions. Having Hurricanes say you are a little too wild is like having Quentin Tarantino say your movie is a little too violent.

But a very different view is found in how people speak of him after his death. Anyone who has been quoted talking about Taylor's death has mentioned how he had turned his life completely around.

"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 and former Miami running back Clinton Portis told reporters.

Another Hurricane, the Giants' Jeremy Shockey, echoed those feelings.

"He was kind of a wild child, like myself," Shockey told The Associated Press. "But life changed for Sean after he had his baby girl. Fatherhood really changed him. He grew up and matured."

The fact that so many have pointed out that Taylor had changed, and wasn't the same person anymore, speaks volumes about what his life was like before. It wasn't good.

That’s not to say he didn't change. I believe wholeheartedly that Taylor tried to turn over a new leaf with the birth of his daughter. Who wouldn't?

But I also believe Arizona Cardinal Antrel Rolle, another former Miami teammate, who refuses to believe that Taylor's death was random at all. Rolle speculated that Taylor had made many enemies in the past.

When you decide to change your life, your future can change, but not your past.

However, it shouldn't really matter whether Taylor was targeted or was a random victim; the circumstances in which he died, being shot in his home by intruders with his fiancee and child nearby, are ghastly regardless.

The problem is that it does matter.

If the same thing were to have happened to, say, Mike Tyson, Dennis Rodman or John Rocker, the feeling would be the same — this lingering feeling that maybe the victim brought their fate upon themselves.

If it were Peyton Manning, LeBron James or Dwyane Wade, though, that feeling wouldn't be there.

That is what is most sad about Taylor's death. A man who had changed his life for the better can't be remembered — except by those closest to him — for being the person that he was when he died, but rather for how he lived.

 

Dave McGrath is a former Herald sports editor, and a reporter and Green Bay Packers beat writer for the Shawano (Wis.) Leader. If you'd rather he have written about Bob Knight's latest foray into YouTube, you can reach him at dmcgrath@alumni.wisc.edu.