Taylor made.

Well, with the conclusion of today's Sunday football games, there was 14 moments of silence and a memorial defensive play that only featured 10 players to honor the death of former Redskins' safety Sean Taylor this past week. Taylor, 24, was gunned down in his home during an attempted burglary. Unless you don't follow sports, current events, or sunlight doesn't reach under your rock, you have probably heard about this because of the nature and publicity the crime received. Surviving his death were his fiance' and 18-month old daughter, who resided with Taylor in his Miami-suburb home.
Now that your caught up to speed, there has been a lot of talk from so many angles as to how and why Taylor died or if it could have ever been avoided. Taylor, who was black and raised in the Miami area, also was the son of a local police officer. With a middle-class upbringing, and law enforcement father, Taylor still had a pretty awful rap sheet that included an armed assault arrest in 2005. Taylor was supposedly involved in a crime that included a stolen SUV, sprayed with bullets in Miami.
So far, your probably thinking this guy is another black thug, who plays a pro sport, makes millions and had a non-surprising death. But two of my favorite sportswriters did pieces this past week on Taylor's death; Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star and Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post. Both black, both highly respected, award-winning journalists touched on the subject that it's not white-on-black crime people have to fear anymore... but black-on-black that is the 800lbs. gorilla in the room. Whitlock's article talks of the "black KKK." Wilbon's piece is titled "Dying Young, Black." I suggest you read both to gain some perspective why I'm writing this blog.
I'm as much a sports fan as anyone, but there is so much that these athletes deal with that is magnified because of the limelight, pressure and worst of all, money that comes into their lives. But it's any pro athlete's responsibility to know that if you have family and a life that you wish to protect... you have to do everything within your power and resources to do so. That means maybe not living near the same hood or rough neighborhood that you grew up near. Yes, he has the liberty to do so, but your name or money is never going to keep people at bay that have nothing to lose, like burglers or robbers or even murderers. If you look at black icons like Jay-Z or 50 Cent... they had come from very low-income, poor projects within NYC to lead music and pop culture into this century. But you ask them if they would have still lived in Bedford-Stuyvestant, Brooklyn or South Jamaica, Queens with their new found fame and money, I don't think they would have had to think twice about it. They got the fuck out.
I'm agreeing with Wilbon and Whitlock that being black, young, famous and desirable in America is not only a lifestyle many seek, but often times hard to be. At least it seems that way from where I'm sitting. As a father, future husband, provider and role model, he owes it to himself and other people to be as much of a noble professional as possible, representing black people in the best of his ability.
But the tragedy of Sean Taylor isn't going to be the first or the last of its kind. That means there's still lessons to be learned.

Sean Taylor 1983-2007