Hello World

Sean Taylor, one of few standout players on the Redskins, died last night from an injury he suffered confronting an intruder in his Florida home. He was shot in the femoral artery, lingered through a long surgery, but succumbed to the injury early this morning.

On the one hand, this is a minor story. Taylor was one of many people killed by violence yesterday. He’s not even the first football player to be shot recently. It’s easy to argue that those of us who find something powerful in this story ought to be more affected by all the other tragedies in the world.

But of course, there are millions of people who feel like they knew Sean Taylor. And his story is a compelling one. In many ways it seemed like Taylor’s life was on the upswing–in his college years and his first few NFL years, he regularly got into trouble on and off the field. His obvious talent seemed likely to be forever subordinated to his impetuous immaturity, and there were stories describing his bad behavior coming out all the time. But in the last year those stories almost disappeared, replaced by the clichéd redemption stories we all love so much. Expect many more stories building Taylor up into a fine upstanding citizen now that he’s dead.

I certainly don’t have anything unique or interesting to say about this whole thing. I didn’t know Sean Taylor, I just watched him tackle people every Sunday, because I root for the shirt he wore while he did it. But he was 24 when he died, and that is extremely sad.

I bet Mike Wise wishes he could get this column back (the point of the column, published last night, is how Taylor nearly died in the attack, but didn’t). Things changed very quickly–it went from hopeless to hopeful and back again many times yesterday. I’m sure it’s frustrating to have to write something conclusive about a developing story, only to have it be obsolete before the sun comes up.

Anyway. To finish up with another clichéd observation, Taylor’s untimely death certainly does put a mediocre football season into perspective. But it’s only because people care so much about these silly games that they care so much about these senseless deaths.

In terms of our record, losing 52-7 is no worse than losing 17-16.

In terms of our record, winning 23-20 in OT is just as good as winning 48-3.

Portis finished with almost 200 yards. Maybe our rushing game is finally coming together.

We’re 5-3. If we keep at this pace (and win most of our division match-ups), we’ll (probably) make the playoffs.

Rocky McIntosh had an awesome game, tackling guys all over the field (of course, this means that our front line and corners weren’t so awesome).

Gibbs made what proved to be a prescient decision when he opted to go for two in the 4th quarter.

We won, in a game that we had to have if we wanted a reasonable chance at making the postseason.

That’s about all the good news I can think of.

Another fairly lucky win. The defense is playing great, refusing to give up a TD to a kinda mediocre offense, but I’m not quite sold on the offense yet. Oddly enough, the passing game looks pretty decent for once, but the line isn’t consistently bolstering the run with good blocks. Maybe because they keep getting injured.

At any rate, my personal hero Rocky McIntosh had another solid game. He rules.

Next week, we get to play a seriously demoralized Giants team. I’m starting to feel pretty good about this season (cue the season-ending injuries to Campbell and London Fletcher…).

In other news, what’s up with Britney Spears? I’m starting to think she doesn’t have her life in order.