Man, that was a talent rich draft, wasnt it? 1.San Diego Chargers Eli Manning, QB - Mississippi 2. Oakland Raiders Robert Gallery, OT - Iowa 3. Arizona Cardinals Larry Fitzgerald, WR - Pitt 4. New York Giants Phillip Rivers, QB - NC State 5. Washington Redskins Sean Taylor, S - Miami (Fl.) 6. Cleveland Browns Kellen Winslow Jr., TE - Miami (Fl.) 7. Detroit Lions Roy Williams, WR - Texas 8. Atlanta Falcons DeAngelo Hall, CB - Virginia Tech 9. Jacksonville Jaguars Reggie Williams, WR - Washington 10. Houston Texans Dunta Robinson, CB - USC 11. Pittsburgh Steelers Ben Roethlisberger, QB - Miami(Ohio) 12. New York Jets Jonathon Vilma, LB - Miami (Fl.) 13. Buffalo Bills Lee Evans, WR - Wisconsin 14. Chicago Bears Tommie Harris, DT - Oklahoma 15. Tampa Bay Buccaneers Michael Clayton, WR - LSU 16. Philadelphia Eagles Shawn Andrews, OT - Arkansas 17. Denver Broncos D.J. Williams, LB - Miami (FL.) 18. New Orleans Saints Will Smith, DE - Ohio State 19. Miami Dolphins Vernon Carey, G - Miami (Fl.) 20. Minnesota Vikings Kenechi Udeze, DE - USC 21.New England Patriots Vince Wilfork, DT - Miami (Fl.) Yet, the guys taken at the very top have been disappointing. The draft is ALWAYS a crap shoot.
Anybody wo thinks rap music is the sole reason for people killing each other is an idiot , i love rap music listen to it all the time and in no point have i felt the need to kill someone or use a gun at any point. thats a real ignorant thing to say.
The worst part about allan's insinuation is, Sean Taylor rarely talked to the media... Unless you know him personally, we have no way of knowing what kind of music he listened to... allan, being the ignorant person he is, just assumed that since he was black and had been in legal trouble before, he must have listened to rap and been a thug.... Disgusting... The pain from this loss still hasn't begun to die down.... Such a terrible, terrible, senseless loss... RIP Sean
Sad day in not just in sports but the real world too, it's a shame how sucess makes people target you. The guy was an incredible athlete one of only a handful of human beings to excell at football and that made him a target. If he had been a banker or insurance salesman this would not have happened but because he was a gifted athlete it did. Just too sad...... My thoughts and prayers are with his family and especially his daughter. It sounds as if his father is handling this ok and he is at peace with the fact that this happened. His quote at the end was great too, ''We all have high expectations, but we all understand that everyone has to travel the road and there are going to be some mishaps,'' he said. ``But guess what? That's what we're here for to steer them in the right direction.'' BTW I can't believe all the ignorance in this thread, have some respect for the guy. If a relative of yours died drunk driving while listening to Biggie would you be so quick to throw stones at them?
Widespread grief over Taylor's passing Posted on Wed, Nov. 28, 2007D BY MICHELLE KAUFMAN, SUSAN MILLER DEGNAN, MANNY NAVARRO AND EVAN S. BENN ebenn@MiamiHerald.com The death of football player Sean Taylor sent pangs Tuesday through the many lives he touched: coaches and teammates at Miami Gulliver Prep, the University of Miami and the Washington Redskins, and countless fans and friends across the country. A block from the University of Miami campus, a sign hung in the window of the allCanes sporting goods store, expressing that Taylor is in their prayers and will be missed. Alex Losa was among the customers inside. He helped coach Taylor's junior varsity team at Miami Killian High, where Taylor played for two years before transferring to Gulliver Prep. ''I heard the news on the radio driving to work, and I lost it,'' Losa said. 'He was one of my guys, a great kid, and this hit me real hard. He was so talented, but very humble and down to earth. Respectful, too. Always, `Yes, sir,' and `Yes, Coach.' ``Even after he left Killian, he kept in touch and I used to come to UM to watch his practices. I can't believe he's gone.'' Taylor and his family were regular customers at allCanes, a longtime UM hangout. ''Sean's dad used to come in before big games and order a bunch of blank jerseys with No. 26 on them,'' said Josh Peskin, the store's retail manager. ``They started coming when Sean was still at Gulliver and had committed to UM. They were proud Canes and wanted to wear everything green and orange. We built up a relationship over the years, like we do with so many of the athletes. We become like family. It's a sad day here today.'' Fans started calling the store early Tuesday to find out if any No. 26 jerseys were in stock. Campus life appeared to go on as usual at UM, but the news of Taylor's death impacted many students. ''It's just a huge tragedy both for the Redskins and the UM community,'' junior Kim Stabler said. ``Once you're a Cane, you're always a Cane, and I think that even if we weren't at UM while Taylor was, we still feel the sadness.'' CAN'T COMPREHEND For Steve Howey, Taylor's former coach at Gulliver Prep, the sadness came mixed with confusion. He went to sleep Monday believing Taylor was going to pull through. Then came a string of phone calls Tuesday morning. ''I felt almost like a parent losing a child,'' said Howey, who now coaches for a school in Naples. ``That's the way it is with coaches and their players. They're like your sons. ``It knocked the wind out of me. I had trouble breathing. I went back inside and told my wife. She gave me a hug and we cried.'' Lee Horn had the same reaction Tuesday. Taylor's former running backs coach at Gulliver, Horn was so close with Taylor that they used to watch NFL games on Sundays at the home of Horn's parents in Pinecrest. ''I cried,'' Horn said about hearing the news of Taylor's death Tuesday. ``Sean, without a doubt, was the most talented athlete I've ever coached. I've been getting phone calls from friends and families and former teammates of Sean's all day. And everyone's reaction is the same: We're all in shock.'' Taylor remained humble when he walked through the halls of Gulliver, despite his star status as an athlete. After he made it to the pros, Taylor bought new uniforms for Gulliver's basketball team. ''The smile was his trademark,'' Gulliver associate director John Krutulis said. ``He was the kind of guy when you met him, right away you liked him. He was a gentleman, very soft spoken. You didn't know he could crack people on the football field the way he did if you didn't know he was an athlete.'' The grief from Taylor's death extended from South Florida up to the Washington area, and all over the Internet. The social networking site facebook.com had several group pages dedicated in Taylor's memory, with names such as RIP Sean Taylor and A True Legend of The U. By late Tuesday, more than 5,000 users had signed up to join those groups. REDSKINS GRIEVE Redskins fans begin laying flowers on a field near the front entrance to Redskins Park in northern Virginia early in the day. Team officials planned to paint No. 21 -- Taylor's pro jersey number -- in a plaza on the south side of FedEx Field. Several of Taylor's teammates had arrived in South Florida on Monday to be by his side and comfort his family. ''The public perception was that he was an outcast,'' said Redskins running back Clinton Portis, one of Taylor's teammates at UM. ``He wasn't. He just was to himself. There wasn't anything about him thuggish. Off the field, he was quiet, nice, friendly, fun to be around. A character.'' A somber Portis sat with friends Tuesday morning in Colonial Drive Park, a collection of tennis and basketball courts next to the home of Taylor's father, who is the police chief in Florida City. Friends and teammates said they had watched Taylor mature since his rookie season, and they credited a lot of that to the birth of his daughter last year. Added Redskins receiver James Thrash: ``From the first day I met him, from then to now, it's just like night and day.'' Michele Harding, a Washington native who now lives in Fort Lauderdale, rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital when she heard about Taylor being shot. She wore a Taylor jersey and clutched a photograph of herself with Taylor. ''I cried for three hours,'' she said. ``He's my favorite defensive player. He's really a great guy. He's the best.'' Miami Herald staff writers Oscar Corral, Rebecca Dellagloria, Jennifer Lebovich and Patricia Mazzei and correspondent Rick Snider contributed to this report. ********************************** Jon Vilma: "Sean has been a close friend of mine since our days at the University of Miami. He was a great teammate and an even greater person. "It is so hard for me to fathom that I am not going to be able to pick up the phone to call him. My deepest condolences are extended to his family, especially his daughter and parents. "Sean will definitely be missed and I hope for the best for his family." Jeremy Shockey: "I first got to know Sean in college when he came in as a freshman and I was in my last year at Miami. He came in with Kellen Winslow. "He was kind of a wild child, like myself, but life changed for Sean after he had his baby girl. "Fatherhood really changed him. He grew up and matured. That baby (daughter Jackie) had transformed his life. Working out with him during the offseason, I witnessed a change. "You could see it like night and day. I feel so bad for the family." Sinorice Moss: "It's a tough time for me right now. Sean was really like a brother to me. We were classmates and teammates at UM and he was a guy that just loved football and loved being around his friends. "I feel for his family. I know his dad real well, and I feel for his baby girl. He was so proud of his little girl, and it's just so sad that he's no longer here and won't be able to see her grow up. "The whole UM family is hurting right now. My prayers go out to his family because they are going to need our support."
I feel even better about taunting allan all the time now that I've realized he's also an ignorant boob. But back to Taylor. I always remember the 2004 draft as when I really got into the whole message board thing. I was big time on the draft Sean Taylor bandwagon when the Giants had the #4 pick. I've always been an admirer of the athletic, hard-hitting safety, which is why Gibril Wilson is my favorite Giant. But man, naturally I would've taken Taylor over him every day of the week. Remember when he leveled Brian Moorman in the Pro Bowl? Only entertaining thing to happen in the Pro Bowl, ever. That's him during an interview before the season. The dude was growing up, dammit. On the field and off the field. He had a chance to do so much more in life...
Wow, Welcome to my ignore list. Ingnorance like this is awful. Heaping it on top of a tragedy like this is sick. This from a person who is not a rap fan, just a decent human being. RIP Sean
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/college/hurricanes/bal-sp.team28nov28,0,3523210.story This is a good read. Dealing With It By Ken Murray and Dan Connolly | Sun reporters November 28, 2007 There is no prescribed path, no blueprint Mike Hargrove can give Joe Gibbs. Dealing with death in sports is not in any coaching manual. In the aftermath of the shooting death of Pro Bowl safety Sean Taylor, Gibbs has to pull his shattered team together and get the Washington Redskins ready to play a game in four days. "All of us here are going to work together, go forward together, and I think each person here has to deal with it in his own way," Gibbs said during a news conference at the team's practice facility in Ashburn, Va., yesterday. "I don't know how we'll deal with it, except we'll all do it together." Taylor, only 24 and one of the NFL's best defensive players, died yesterday morning at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital from a gunshot wound to the upper leg. Shot by an apparent intruder at his Palmetto Bay, Fla., home early Monday morning, Taylor is the first active NFL player in modern history to be slain during the regular season. On what is normally a day off for the Redskins, they were only beginning to work through their grief yesterday. "Sean was a dear friend to all of us. We're all like a family, and it's like we lost a family member. In this tragedy, we all have to pull together and stay strong for each other," Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell said before he was overcome by emotion. Hargrove has been there before - twice, in fact. He was manager of the Cleveland Indians in 1993 when a spring training boating accident outside Orlando, Fla., cost the lives of two pitchers, Steve Olin and Tim Crews, and nearly killed a third. As manager of the Orioles a decade later, he watched pitcher Steve Bechler die of heatstroke after taking an ephedra-based diet supplement. One thing Hargrove learned is before the games begin again, before there can be any healing, there has to be time to grieve. "You have to allow the proper time to be taken, and those needs are greater than the needs of the clubs," Hargrove said. "You still have a period in which you have to perform, but that never has a chance if you don't allow people the room and space to deal with it as they can. You cannot force-feed people to do anything." The sudden loss of life of such a young teammate will settle on different members of the organization in different ways, depending on their relationship with Taylor, a sports psychologist and expert on traumatic death said yesterday. The grieving process can be treacherous, filled with swings of anger, depression and vulnerability, and each person on the team will have to confront the issues individually. "One of the most important things is to realize there is no one right response," said Dr. Deborah J. Wilson, a sports psychologist and associate athletic director at George Mason University. "People have had different relationships with Sean, and that will affect how they respond emotionally to this. "The way an individual feels today might be quite different than the way they feel tomorrow. Many people are just going through the shock of it all. Once they're past that, there's going to be some people who are angry, some who feel disoriented. Most of them, to some degree, are going to feel the vulnerability of life." Dr. Marcella Marcey, a psychologist who launched her career working with the families of homicide victims in Oxon Hill and now has a private business in Fairfax, Va., said the grieving process can be drawn out and full of anxiety. "You just get these weird reactions with grief," Marcey said. "You get periods of high anxiety out of nowhere. Sadness can hit out of nowhere. You'll be on the field, playing as a team, and somebody else will be playing in [Taylor's safety] position. It's like the empty space at Thanksgiving dinner." The expression of emotion in small circles is a catalyst for healing. After counselors were brought in at Cleveland, Hargrove applied a personal touch. "We had a big, private, players-only and coaching staff meeting," he said. "We sat around and pulled chairs in close and we just talked. We all talked about how we were feeling, and if somebody couldn't go any further, someone else picked up." In August 1979, New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson was killed when he crashed his private plane while practicing takeoffs and landings at an airstrip near his Ohio home. The entire team attended his funeral in Canton on Aug. 6, when his best friends, Lou Piniella and Bobby Murcer, gave eulogies. That night, in front of a national television audience, Murcer drove in all five runs as the Yankees beat the Orioles, 5-4, at Yankee Stadium. Former Orioles general manager Jim Beattie was a rookie pitcher who had just been recalled by the Yankees the day Munson died. "It was kind of the logical reaction of putting baseball behind you for a while and then using it as a distraction," Beattie said. Beattie remembered that teammates grieved openly. "You try to get your mind distracted, but even that doesn't work," he said. "You see another catcher doing something and think, 'That should be Thurman doing that.'" Hargrove said Gibbs will know when to move forward from the tragedy. "I certainly don't think people should be left alone and let them wallow in their self-pity, but there comes a time that you realize now you have to take some steps forward," Hargrove said. "Joe is a good man. He'll know when it is time to start moving forward."
Ah, I see, you can 'see' the greater picture. At least we know the rear portion of your brain functions. Because the rest of your gray squash is tits-up. RIP Sean Taylor.
It appears Allan 1 may be Jason WHitlock. http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7499442?MSNHPHCP>1=10637 Taylor's death a grim reminder for us all Jason Whitlock FOXSports.com, Updated 33 minutes ago STORY TOOLS: There's a reason I call them the Black KKK. The pain, the fear and the destruction are all the same. Someone who loved Sean Taylor is crying right now. The life they knew has been destroyed, an 18-month-old baby lost her father, and, if you're a black man living in America, you've been reminded once again that your life is in constant jeopardy of violent death. The Black KKK claimed another victim, a high-profile professional football player with a checkered past this time. No, we don't know for certain the circumstances surrounding Taylor's death. I could very well be proven wrong for engaging in this sort of aggressive speculation. But it's no different than if you saw a fat man fall to the ground clutching his chest. You'd assume a heart attack, and you'd know, no matter the cause, the man needed to lose weight. Well, when shots are fired and a black man hits the pavement, there's every statistical reason to believe another black man pulled the trigger. That's not some negative, unfair stereotype. It's a reality we've been living with, tolerating and rationalizing for far too long. When the traditional, white KKK lynched, terrorized and intimidated black folks at a slower rate than its modern-day dark-skinned replacement, at least we had the good sense to be outraged and in no mood to contemplate rationalizations or be fooled by distractions. Our new millennium strategy is to pray the Black KKK goes away or ignores us. How's that working? About as well as the attempt to shift attention away from this uniquely African-American crisis by focusing on an alleged injustice the white media allegedly perpetrated against Sean Taylor. Within hours of his death, there was a story circulating that members of the black press were complaining that news outlets were disrespecting Taylor's victimhood by reporting on his troubled past No disrespect to Taylor, but he controlled the way he would be remembered by the way he lived. His immature, undisciplined behavior with his employer, his run-ins with law enforcement, which included allegedly threatening a man with a loaded gun, and the fact a vehicle he owned was once sprayed with bullets are all pertinent details when you've been murdered. Marcellus Wiley, a former NFL player, made the radio circuit Wednesday, singing the tune that athletes are targets. That was his explanation for the murders of Taylor and Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams and the armed robberies of NBA players Antoine Walker and Eddy Curry. Really? Let's cut through the bull(manure) and deal with reality. Black men are targets of black men. Period. Go check the coroner's office and talk with a police detective. These bullets aren't checking W-2s. Rather than whine about white folks' insensitivity or reserve a special place of sorrow for rich athletes, we'd be better served mustering the kind of outrage and courage it took in the 1950s and 1960s to stop the white KKK from hanging black men from trees. But we don't want to deal with ourselves. We take great joy in prescribing medicine to cure the hate in other people's hearts. Meanwhile, our self-hatred, on full display for the world to see, remains untreated, undiagnosed and unrepentant. Our self-hatred has been set to music and reinforced by a pervasive culture that promotes a crab-in-barrel mentality. You're damn straight I blame hip hop for playing a role in the genocide of American black men. When your leading causes of death and dysfunction are murder, ignorance and incarceration, there's no reason to give a free pass to a culture that celebrates murder, ignorance and incarceration. Make your voice heard... This story has touched off some very spirited debate. If you would like to join in, it is being discussed on our community page. Of course there are other catalysts, but until we recapture the minds of black youth, convince them that it's not OK to "super man dat ho" and end any and every dispute by "cocking on your bitch," nothing will change. Does a Soulja Boy want an education? HBO did a fascinating documentary on Little Rock Central High School, the Arkansas school that required the National Guard so that nine black kids could attend in the 1950s. Fifty years later, the school is one of the nation's best in terms of funding and educational opportunities. It's 60 percent black and located in a poor black community. Watch the documentary and ask yourself why nine poor kids in the '50s risked their lives to get a good education and a thousand poor black kids today ignore the opportunity that is served to them on a platter. Blame drugs, blame Ronald Reagan, blame George Bush, blame it on the rain or whatever. There's only one group of people who can change the rotten, anti-education, pro-violence culture our kids have adopted. We have to do it. According to reports, Sean Taylor had difficulty breaking free from the unsavory characters he associated with during his youth. The "keepin' it real" mantra of hip hop is in direct defiance to evolution. There's always someone ready to tell you you're selling out if you move away from the immature and dangerous activities you used to do, you're selling out if you speak proper English, embrace education, dress like a grown man, do anything mainstream. The Black KKK is enforcing the same crippling standards as its parent organization. It wants to keep black men in their place — uneducated, outside the mainstream and six feet deep. In all likelihood, the Black Klan and its mentality buried Sean Taylor, and any black man or boy reading this could be next.
Whitlock - who I used to despise reading - hits it near out of the park these days just about every week. He's been championing this issue for the last year. This is, by far, his strongest yet. Incidentally, I heard a couple of interesting side points to this story. First, Antrel Rolle, a childhood friend of Taylor, says that he thinks the shooter was an old, alienated friend of Taylor, who didn't like being left behind in the old neighborhood. Second, I heard an emergency room nurse mention how groin shots are a gang thing these days. The resulting damage is either (a) impotence, or (b) a colostomy - both of which are almost more insulting that a clean head shot. Of course, there's always the possibility of (c) death, but who thinks of such things?
I'll have to look for the Rolle article, but I have this quote from it saved in my copy paste: "This was not the first incident," Rolle said. "They've been targeting him for three years now." Rolle said many former "friends" had it in for Taylor, who was trying to build a more stable life. Also, at the risk of sounding gruesome, when the doctors said they had to remove organs during surgery, it is quite possible that they were the organs located in the groin.
no, rap doesn't kill people, but it embraces of culture of murder and misogyny that is then glorified by the black community, and when such behavior is glorified it will be practiced. believing that rap doesn't have a negative repercussion on society just because YOU aren't effected by it is egotisical and ignorant. Jason Whitlock isn't the best writer, and will probably be attacked for his stance just like Bill Cosby, but at least he has the balls to say what is wrong with a significant portion of the black community and how it is effecting black males.
I?m starting to read allot of speculation that this was an old thug from the past; friends are insinuating that he has been a target for retaliation for something and that he was always ?scared to be in Miami?. Sorry ? but I?ve got a real problem with any millionaire who senses an eminent threat to his or his families personal safety and does absolutely nothing to protect himself. It just piles on to the senselessness of this whole thing; if you?re scared or threatened, get the fuck out ? because contrary to legend it?s pretty clear that Taylor was NOT a gangster or a thug. Last I checked, gangsters and thugs don?t sit around their houses for the most part unarmed waiting to get shot in the nuts. I just wish these kids would wake up and realize that once they make it; they own nothing to a neighborhood that they don?t own a brick in.
C'mon, does anyone really think that a $250 plane fare to DC would have prevented someone from flying up north to cap him? Was he not supposed to visit his father, who still lives in the Miami area? Was he not supposed to work out in Miami with the other Canes during the off-season? And what about when the Skins have to play the Dolphins? Wouldnt that put him in the Miami area? What was he supposed to do- go into the NFL witness protection program?
