Sean Taylor Tragedy: The Shocking 2007 Incident That Shook the NFL
Sean Taylor Tragedy: The Shocking 2007 Incident That Shoo...
By Jason Bolton August 27, 2024 09:58
Sean Taylor died on November 27, 2007, and saddened the NFL community. An act of senseless violence took Taylor's life at just 24 and reverberated through the sports world and beyond. This piece takes a look at the circumstances surrounding his death, how it affected the NFL, and ultimately left behind an athlete whose ability was never fully tapped.
In the Event: Tragedy Transpires in Order
He had previously been expected to miss at least two weeks with a knee injury suffered on Nov. 11, 2007. Taylor flew to Florida while his team was in Tampa Bay for their Nov. 25 game, all so he could be with his fiancée and the couple's 18-month-old daughter at home near Miami.
Before the actual event, Taylor also expressed concerns about his home security with teammate Santana Moss. "He had told me once he wished that someone would come to his house, and then the light came on," Moss said. "I remember saying, 'I'm glad you weren't there; I don't know what you would have done. "
That nightmare came true for Taylor on the night of Nov. 26, when criminal intruders broke into his Miami-area home. During the break-in, Taylor was shot in his thigh, and that bullet hit a major artery. She rushed him to the hospital, but it was obvious that he would not survive his injuries.
The shooting sent the NFL community into a tailspin. Initially, because his teammates and so many others prayed steadfastly for him, Taylor, too, was spared. A colleague from Taylor's University of Miami days and former teammate, Clinton Portis, recalls his last conversation with Taylor shortly before the incident: "He brought my level excitement up about having a child; where at the time I was petrified because it wasn't someone that me & him laid down together. To me, it was scary. He made my mindset change."
Unfortunately, despite world efforts to save him, Sean Taylor was pronounced dead in the early morning hours of November 27th, 2007. It sent reverberations throughout the NFL and beyond as fans, teammates, and coaches processed how a player of his talent died so young.
How His Passing Affected His Team and the NFL
The killing of Sean Taylor very heavily affected the Washington Redskins walked right, belonging to any kind of influence on small business organizations. The team was mourning, focusing on the game that awaited them against Buffalo.
Less than 36 hours after his son was killed, Taylor's father, Pedro, spoke to the team at Redskins Park in a moving moment.. Pedro Taylor then surprised the team by telling them to play for the right to win five straight games and make the playoffs, even with his son's passing.
But Taylor's death had ripples far beyond the Redskins organization. Throughout the league, other NFL players were rattled by the news some knew Taylor personally in some context or had respected him for fear-mongering against them previously. It was a sobering reminder of how vicious life can be, even with a larger-than-life athletic specimen like Taylor.
Joe Gibbs, the Redskins head coach at that time, described the rest of the 2007 season as one of his hardest coaching jobs ever. The group came together using their collective sorrow and Taylor's memory as the pedestal for what they would fight toward. The Redskins recovered well from the loss and reached the playoffs with an 11-5 record that season, but they were ousted in a wild-card playoff game against Seattle.
A Promising Career Cut Short
Taylor, whose tragic end cut short his life off the field and stunted a burgeoning career on it, was, in every sense of the word, taken before his time. The fifth player selected in the 2004 NFL draft, Taylor had immediately proven to be one of the most electrifying safeties in pro football.
Taylor was a nightmare for opposing offenses with his perfect mix of size, speed, and instincts. Here was Redskins owner Daniel Snyder on the value of Taylor: "I just had this thought to myself that I've got the best safety in football. It was an impressive lot to make Hall of Fame quarterback bait. Perhaps my best player we ever drafted,".
A Community United in Grief
The wave of support that rolled in after Taylor died said as much about Taylor's importance during his short stay on the NFL stage. Many also left flowers, stuffed bears, and candles at the entrance of the Redskins' team headquarters as a makeshift memorial for Taylor.
The Redskins organization, under owner Daniel Snyder, had been very careful to do things right by Taylor's memory. Snyder had the entire team and organization flown to Miami for Taylor's funeral service. The removal placed a powerful exclamation mark on the loss their extended family of teammates, schoolmates, and staffers felt.
One of the most shocking moments in NFL history occurred when Sean Taylor was gunned down at home on Nov. 27, 2007, canonizing him as a martyr for any cause after his untimely death sacrificed an otherwise average career to football lore.
As his teammate Santana Moss put it, "He looked like he had more energy than anybody else on the field. This passion, this energy to play and love life, is still with us, being remembered daily," ensuring that Sean Taylor's legacy did not stop on the gridiron.
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