Sean Taylor

By now, you’ve probably heard about the fatal shooting of Redskins’ safety, Sean Taylor. It’s obviously very tragic when someone dies in the prime of their life. Taylor was only 24, and he leaves behind his fiancé and an 18- month-old child.

Taylor was one of the premier safeties in the NFL and appeared headed towards a Hall of Fame-caliber career.

The angle I’d like to focus on is the coverage of this story by the mainstream media.

Taylor had a history of off the field trouble. He narrowly avoided the potential of over 40 years in prison after allegedly pulling a gun on a group of people a couple years back.

His trouble even spilt over onto the field. While nobody can debate his ability as a football player, his character was called into question when he spat in the face of Tampa Bay’s Michael Pittman during a playoff game. This gave a nationally televised crowd an opportunity to cast their own aspersions.

Friends and family claim that Taylor cleaned up his act when he became a father. I’m not here to say that those reports are erroneous, but it made the coverage of his passing an interesting topic to follow.

It’s certainly horrific if a random intruder broke into a house and shot a successful young man. However, doesn’t the perception of this crime change a bit if Taylor did something to bring this on?

It’s still terrible and wrong on the part of the killer, but it changes how we remember Sean Taylor. He didn’t deserve to die, but who knows what circumstance may have lead to that.
I don’t mean to speculate, but its human nature in this case. If you picked up the paper tomorrow morning and read that Brittany Spears was found dead, your first reaction might be that she had something to do with her own demise. At the same time, the possibility is open that it was a random event.

I could tell that ESPN had a difficult time figuring out how to handle this. They tried to walk that tight-rope between informing and speculating. I heard his past troubles mentioned, but not until a day or so into the coverage. Still, it was just that. It was “mentioned.” No speculation whatsoever took place (that I heard or saw at least).

I think it was handled well, but I’d like to hear what others have to say. So, if anyone is actually reading this, please take this opportunity to chime in.

Thank you, and hopefully the seriousness of this post won’t be needed again for a while.

What a Week

Wow. I have to start by apologizing for not posting a preview on the Chiefs game. It was a crazy week and by the time I remembered it was halfway through the second quarter on Sunday.

For the first time since this blog’s inception, the Raiders won! Sure, it may have cost them Darren McFadden in the draft, but it was nice to finally end that NFL record 17 game divisional loss record.

I have a lot I want to say this week and I’m even working out the kinks on adding a podcast to the site.

However, I’m feeling the 18 credit grind right now at school, so I won’t be able to get to it until later in the week.

Vikings Recap

The Raiders lost their 6th consecutive game and fell to 2-8.

Stuart Schweigert managed to have an entire season's worth of missed tackles and blown assignments in one game.

The offense looked better, but Duante Culpepper still held on to the ball too long.

Next week, the Raiders make their annual trip to Arrowhead Stadium to face the Kansas City Chiefs. Culpepper will again start at QB.

The Chiefs will be without all-world tail back Larry Johnson. Their backup, Priest Holmes, decided to retire on Wednesday after he reinjured his neck in the second half of last week's contest against the Colts. This likely had a huge impact on the Raiders' strange handling of the LaMont Jordan situation. Jordan was inactive last week and all signs pointed to him being waived when Michael Bush was activated from the PUP list.

However, it seems as though the Raiders didn't want to deal with the possibility of facing Jordan this upcoming week! As a result, Bush will stay on the PUP list and won't play until next year. Jordan will most likely not be released until the offseason.