A phenomenal story in the Washington Post on the complex life and tragic death of Washington Redskin Sean Taylor. He was the product of a father who pushed Sean to great athletic accomplishments and a skeptical, distrustful mother. I am not a psychologist, but I do think the path to the NFL is paved with nasty bumps and hairpin turns; and the ones who can put pedal to the medal without crashing are the ones who make it. From an emotional standpoint, it's not always the most healthy environment, even if a career in professional sports represents the dream of many young kids. Ultimately, the same qualities that it takes to become an NFL player are typically not the same qualities it takes to live a happy, fulfilled life.
From the Washington Post article:
[Taylor] had a code by which he lived and played. Taylor was uninterested in the fame that came with being an NFL star. He turned away the media because he felt reporters would only build up athletes to tear them down. He rejected commercial endorsements because he had no interest in fame.
[Former Redskin defensive coordinator Gregg] Williams said that if a teammate showed fear on the field or an opponent dared challenge his fire, Taylor would fly into rages...[Williams] had spent so much of his coaching career trying to "manufacture toughness" in his players, he said, and here was one who came ready-made with all the ferocity the game demanded.
The saddest part of Taylor's tragic death is that he won't get the opportunity to see his baby girl grow up in a world far different from the one he experienced. And the public won't get to see a hardened NFL Pro Bowler soften as he gradually learned to navigate the contradictory, confusing worlds he inhabited.
Like many pro athletes, he Taylor did have another side:
[The] player who trusted few adults loved children. There was an innocence to children, friends and family think he believed, a special warmth that had yet to be spoiled by adults...When Rene Garcia [Jackie's father] showed up with his daughter to clean out Taylor's Ashburn townhouse in December, sources say he was stunned to see neighbors pouring from their homes to tell stories of the football star who came out into the street to play with the children, who was invited to their birthday parties, said he would come and then actually did.
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