Sean Taylor 1983-2007

Sean Taylor was asleep in his bed with his girlfriend Jackie Garcia and his 18-month old daughter, also named Jackie, in her crib nearby, shortly before 2am on November 26th. They woke up when they heard a noise in the living room. Taylor grabbed a machete that he keeps under the bed for protection, but the intruder (or intruders) burst into the room (kicking down the door which Taylor had locked) and fired two shots. One hit Taylor in the leg, the other missed and hit the wall. The intruder fled and Garcia, who had been cowering under the covers holding her daughter, tried to call 911. But something was wrong with their phone (the line was cut, possibly) so she had to use her cell phone to dial 911.

Taylor was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami where doctors did 7 hours of surgery to repair the damage done when the bullet hit his femoral artery. Doctors haven't provided all the details yet, but it is believed that Taylor's femoral artery was shredded by the bullet. Had it been completely severed it's more likely that he would have survived. But because the bullet shredded the artery, blood kept flowing there and Taylor was bleeding internally. It is estimated that Taylor lost about 2 quarts of blood, about 30% of all the blood in his body. Once the damage was repaired, it was too late, he had lost too much blood and his vital organs had been without blood for too long.



*****

Police will begin investigating this crime but at these early stages the question is: was Taylor targeted? Or was this a home invasion robbery that went wrong?

Many people are ruling out robbery because the killer came into the bedroom firing, then left without taking anything.

On November 17th, Taylor's home was burglarized at a time when no one was home. An intruder pried open the window, rifled through some drawers and left. Not much, if anything was taken but what they left is most interesting. A kitchen knife was left on the bed. Was it a message?

*****

Sean Taylor had been in trouble before. In 2005 there was an incident in which two ATVs were stolen from Taylor. There was a fight in which Taylor punched the guy he thought stole his ATVs. Taylor says the other guy later fired shots at his car, the other guy says Taylor shot at him. The charges against Taylor in this case were dropped when he agreed to do community service (speak to school children) and donate $10,000 to local schools. But it's not clear if the charges were dropped because they didn't have a case against Taylor or because the case had been mishandled by the prosecutors. The prosecutor was using his position on the case to advertise for his DJ business.

Some have speculated that this incident, or perhaps other violent incidents in the past led to Taylor being a marked man. There is no evidence to support that at this time.

People want to speculate that Taylor was the stereotypical young black man who grew up without a father and ran with gangs and eventually couldn't escape his violent past.

Sean Taylor's father is the police chief in nearby Florida City, Florida and from all accounts has always been a strong part of Sean's life.

*****

On the field Taylor was the textbook strong safety. He was a big hitter, he stuffed the run, he forced turnovers but he was a little susceptible to the deep pass.
Taylor was known for playing on the edge and frequently followed big plays with stupid penalties. This was best typified by the playoff game against the Buccaneers in 2006. Taylor returned a fumble for a touchdown, but later got penalized 15 yards for spitting on Michael Pittman.



Taylor even brought his intensity to the Pro Bowl where he delivered this hit on Bills punter Brian Morman.

*****

So now Jackie Garcia (who by the way is related to Andy Garcia) will begin raising her little girl as a single mother.



By all accounts, Taylor had grown up a lot since Jackie was born 18 months ago. He left behind his past and became a good father, a good boyfriend and a better, more mature man. Remember, he was only 24, a young age to have all this money and responsibility.

A woman lost a love, a girl lost a father, a father lost a son and a lot of fans lost a hero.

Someday Chase will grow up to become a Redskins fan (hopefully) but he'll never get the chance to see Sean Taylor play. For the next ten years I had hoped he would be in the Redskins secondary, and I could watch him with Chase, and maybe #21 would have been his first Redskins jersey.

How is his father going to explain to 5-year-old Andrew Duncan what happened to the guy whose name is on the back of his jersey?



When Sean Taylor gets to heaven I bet he sees a wide receiver running open over the middle.