Kansas 'Point Of Know Return'

I continue my trilogy of dead celebrities with Washington Redskins Safety, Sean Taylor.

Now first of all, I’m not a huge football fan. I don’t watch every single game. As a matter of fact… I watch only the Redskins games during the regular season. I’m a very passive fan when it comes to the NFL as a whole. I may occasionally watch some playoff games and if I’m invited to a party… I’ll watch the Super Bowl.

It’s not that I don’t like football, because I do. I just feel like watching only the games with the Redskins because I have a stake in what they do. I was born into a family of Redskins fans. Right after I exited the womb, I was handed a Redskins hat and t-shirt.

I used to keep up with the names of the players, but over the years with free agency… I just gave up retaining all names and keeping up with all the changes. If you put a gun to my head and asked me to name 11 current players… I’d fail miserably.

The only real thing that stands out in my mind concerning Sean Taylor was the time he spat into another players face. Sure, he was a really good player with the potential of being a great player. But his problems both on the field and off kept him from achieving notoriety as one of the great Redskins players. He did a lot of stupid things for someone possessing the gifts and talents that he had.

So when I heard the news that he was shot in his Miami home… I must admit that I wasn’t all that surprised. When I heard that he had died… That was a little bit of a shock. The prognosis from the previous day seemed dire, but when I heard there was a squeeze given to the doc’s hand… It looked as if things for the most part were going to be all right.

I flew the colors that day out of respect. I wore my personalized Redskins “Away” jersey (white) as if I were wearing a black band that covered my upper body instead of just my bicep.

The friends and peers of Sean Taylor’s spoke about how he was changing his life. And that makes me a little sad… The guy had the potential of being more than a footnote in the history of the NFL.

I’ll write about Evel Knievel tomorrow.