A YOUNG LIFE OF PROMISE

I was going to write about something silly today. But how can you do that on such a sad day? We got the word from our producer in the five a.m. hour.

Heather: "Sean Taylor is dead, but don't say anything yet, we are still trying to confirm it."

Confirmation didn't take long. We waited until we were given the green light, once we had the news, we gave it to you.

It's just so sad. A life of promise! So much talent. A young baby girl. Sean Taylor had so much to live for, but his life was extinguished so quickly. I didn't know Sean Taylor, but I watched him on the field a lot this year. A friend of mine has season tickets to the Skins. He allowed me to purchase a good chunk of the games. So I've seen Taylor deliver incredible hits on the field.

He was enormously talented. Darryl Grant is a frequent guest on our air. The former redskin has come to the station on numerous Mondays to talk about the team and their difficulties. The one constant shining light was Sean Taylor. I remember talking with him about the Detroit Lions receivers. If they were in the middle of the field they would grab the ball in the air and go straight to the ground. It was better than corralling the ball and being hit by Taylor. It was bone jarring. I couldn't imagine a hit like that. The closest thing to it would be getting run over by a mac truck.
There were plenty of times when receivers dropped balls when they heard the footsteps of this hard hitting defensive back. Football is a violent sport, but no one imagines that a young man who plays it will die at the hands of violence in his own home.

Once I was off the air this morning, Jay Mishkin our Executive Producer asked me to hit the streets to get fan reaction. We call it MOS in our business, or man on the street interviews. I have to say in most occasions I feel like it's the weakest form of journalism. Stick a mic in front of someone and suddenly they are an instant expert. But on a day like today it works.

It works because the reactions are real and raw. There is the woman with the thick accent who says "I am very, very, very, very sad." She fights back tears. There are the constant refrains:

"It's tragic!"

"It's so senseless"

"It's so sad"

Then there is the man busily walking down the street who puts it all in perspective. He says it's sad and tragic too, but then he says something most of us will forget.

"It's tragic, it's sad, but we must remember it's another young man whose life is cut short by violence."

Chances are I will report on another one tomorrow morning. A young man, or perhaps a teenager gunned down on the streets of Washington. A kid who didn't wear a jersey. A young man without a famous name, or a big salary. Their death will be reported too. It might capture some notoriety because the city is close to surpassing the homicide mark from a year ago. But chances are their name and their memory will fade fast.

So many of these young men and kids really have a lot in common with Sean Taylor. Young with so much of life still in front of them, brushes with the law along the way in their short lives. All of them snuffed out through violence. Sean Taylor was known for his hits, and his tackles. But if he can help our society figure out a way to tackle the problem of senseless violence that plagues so many pockets of our society, and takes so many young lives, then his legacy will be far more important than anything he ever did on the football field.