Well, today has seen the tragic and infuriating end to the Sean Taylor shooting saga. As a Redskins fan and a Sean Taylor fan, it merely serves to extend what I referred to earlier as one of the worst weekends of sports in my memory.
Here's what nationally syndicated columnist and PTI host Michael Wilbon had to say in a chat about what he tastefully calls "the latest strange episode relating to Taylor"!
McLean, Va.: Will your opinion of Taylor change if this does not turn out to be a random incident (e.g. home invasion)?
Michael Wilbon: No ... people's opinions are shaped by the way they've grown up, the way they see the world, what they know about the world the person in question grew up in, etc. Sean Taylor isn't the only guy I know who fits his general profile. I've known guys like Taylor all my life, grew up with some. They still have shades of gray and shouldn't be painted in black and white...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....Everybody's circumstance is different. But it always seemed to me that Sean Taylor loves his life and the way he's living and has no instinct to change...
Now, I'm far too lazy to scroll down in my blog and see if I've hit on this before, but I do not like Michael Wilbon. He's no Tony Kornheiser, and is on a very short list of the nation's top blowhards (I believe he resides just to the left of Lou Dobbs there). Wilbon tends to turn everything that happens, good or bad, into a broader societal issue. Sean Taylor certainly lived somewhat of a thuggish life early on, but all indications are that he had changed, and dramatically.
Wilbon's thought on that, however, was this:
Columbia, Md.: What makes you think that Taylor was still embracing his old ways? Everything we have heard from the Redskins and Portis is that this is a new Sean. Apparently the birth of his child really helped to straighten him out. Is this contrary to what you know?
Michael Wilbon: Sorry, but I'm not in the habit of having companies with their own public relations agenda tell me about black men and what they feel or don't feel. Pardon me if I'm not that easy.
Hahahaha, well, thank God he's not easy.
Now, I'm not suggesting that there aren't greater societal issues corresponding to this incident (for example, Jemele Hill of ESPN.com notes that this just adds to the statistic that the leading cause of death for African-American males aged 15 to 24 is homicide), I'm just saying this is not the right time to get into it, and Wilbon is certainly not the right person to do it. I've read Kornheiser and Wilbon's columns since I was about 11, and I've always noticed that Kornheiser has always been able to keep a sense of humor and perspective about him, while Wilbon tends to let his emotions get ahead of him. I certainly empathize with his concerns about the consequences of a thuggish lifestyle, but to suggest that Sean Taylor had it coming is not just insensitive, it's wrong. No one ever "has it coming" (outside of Muslim extremists and Michael Moore), but more importantly people certainly can change. For every Michael Vick who continues to hang out with his boys from home, there is a Sean Taylor who decides that his old life is not conducive to his success as a player, companion, and father. Sean Taylor did not have this coming, and it is a terrible tragedy that hopefully, one day, Michael Wilbon and his ilk can accept as something that was certainly not deserving.
R.I.P. #21
