This morning Washington Redskin free safety Sean Taylor died. This was after the previous night when an intruder forced entry into his home and shot Taylor in the upper leg hitting an artery. After much blood loss a miracle was needed, it never came. He was said to be unconscious and heavily sedated as he passed away.
Now what the American public wants know is an explanation. It seems to be the American way, if something happens that we don't like, we want to know what happened and why it happened. Katrina and 9/11 were the same way, just that this is not quite to that extent, you get the point though.
I'm not here to talk about what happened and why it did. I'm here to talk about the effect it will have on the Washington Redskins and the league as a whole.
The Redskins can go two directions. One is that they can take this as a bigger negative then it has to be. They can see a position that they had a pro bowler in vacated for a backup and believe that their playoff chance are over, let alone Super Bowl chances. They are 5-6 right now and still have a great shot at the playoffs. If they let this get to them and keep their heads down nothing will come good of it and will only lead to a downward spiral.
The second direction they can take is using the negative and turning it into a positive. Maybe they dedicate the rest of the season to Sean. Thus giving them that extra umphhh at the end of each game to allow them to sneak into the playoffs and still have a shot at the SB. The team has talent. A couple of good running backs in Clinton Portis and Ladell Betts. Some talented receivers in Santana Moss and Randall El. A up and rising QB in Jason Campbell. There defense is also solid with corners Fred Smoot and Shawn Springs and young gun LaRon Landry to round out a very talented defensive backfield. They still have a very good shot at this thing if they take this whole situation the right way.
As for the league as a whole, I think that there will definitely be some sort of mourning period before all the games this week in remembrance of the former pro bowler. Unlike baseball they can't take a whole day of games off like they did in the MLB for Darryl Kile. The NFL doesn't have the time to do it, everything is on such a time constraint it is hard to even cancel a game due to this factor.
If you want to know more about this story I recommend going to either nfl.com, Redskins.com, or espn.com. The facts are still being rolled in and stories are popping up like crazy in remembrance of Taylor.
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