Sean Taylor: From hero to human

I have learned something from seeing sports tragedies unfold in front of my very eyes on ESPN. Professional athletes at their core are two things – heroes and humans. \nIn 1986, the Boston Celtics selected forward Len Bias out of the University of Maryland with the second pick in the NBA draft. Bias was multi-talented and rated by many as the most complete forward ever to come out of college. His presence rejuvenated the Celtics’ franchise until two days later, when Bias died of cardiac arrest after taking cocaine in his dorm room.\nBias was a hero to the capacity crowd that filled Cole Fieldhouse at the campus of UM, but from that tragedy, people learned he had human qualities. Bias was said to only have tried cocaine one time, but he was widely considered the martyr by much of the conservative media, who were looking for something to sell for the war on drugs.\nBias even played a part in individual lectures from my dad on why you shouldn’t use drugs. In one of the two or three most cliche adult conversations I had with my parents during my childhood, my father was quick to point out that I should never touch cocaine because my heart would explode like Len Bias’. Point made. \nIt didn’t matter that Bias was a human being with a solid future and a loving family, it mattered that he died like so many others in a troubling trend.\nI am reminded of this because of the tragic death of Washington Redskin’s safety Sean Taylor. As I woke up Monday morning, I read that he was shot in the femoral artery around 2 a.m. during a robbery attempt. He was “clinging to life,” according to numerous reports online for most of Monday, and passed away Tuesday in the middle of the night. \nI was really sad because Sean Taylor was a beast on the field, and more importantly, a person who was improving his character issues that rode his coattails into the league as a man just three years removed from college. He had a 1-year-old daughter, and was said to be improving his reputation. \nESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption” started it’s show off on Monday evening with co-host Michael Wilbon saying he was “disturbed on a number of levels,” and went on to later admit that he “wasn’t surprised.” Wilbon is usually spot-on with his sports analysis, but this made me rethink my feelings toward his opinions.\nIt seems as though he lost perspective of the Sean Taylor tragedy. He put his interpretation of Taylor’s role in our society today as a black man with a troubling past ahead of what the story was really about – the death of a super hero on the field and a human off of it.\nTaylor was the best player in the NFL to watch on the defensive side of the ball. If his career was boiled down to one play, he might be the only player in NFL history to be represented by something he did in the Pro Bowl. Last February, he laid a block during a return on Buffalo Bill’s punter Brad Moorman, leveling him. Taylor played with a rare combination of raw talent and unchecked aggression that made my eyes light up every time he was about to make \na play.\nOff the field, he was surrounded with controversy during his short career. Taylor spit in the face of Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ running back Michael Pittmann, earning a fine of $17,000. Taylor was also arrested in 2005 for pulling a gun on a man and beating him up.\nTaylor showed signs of maturity over the last few years and seemed to have cleaned up his act. Regardless of what might have triggered the robbery early Monday morning that eventually left Taylor dead, it’s not right to summarize his life by stereotyping him as a thug. He was much more than that, and Wilbon should show more compassion when handling the loss of an All-Pro player, who was a father to his daughter and a hero to many young people who watch football.\nSports media personalities sometimes let their own egos get in the way of what is right. Wilbon and those like him should know their roles, and let the dust settle before they jump to conclusions.