Redskins’ Sean Taylor remembered

It has been one year to the day since Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor died, but to those who knew him, he has been a constant presence.

”You see people come and go, but Sean’s never gonna leave here,” Redskins running back Rock Cartwright said. “He’s always gonna be a Redskin.”

Added safeties coach Steve Jackson: “Sean’s always with us.”

Before Sunday’s game against the New York Giants at FedEx Field, Taylor’s name will be added to the team’s Ring of Fame even though his professional career spanned fewer than four seasons. It will be a large, emotional, public celebration of a life cut short at age 24, another reminder of loss and what might have been. On Thursday, Redskins fans are invited to pay their respects at a memorial outside the stadium.

As hard as coping has been for many since Taylor died the day after he was shot during a break-in at his home in South Florida, this is a difficult week for his family, friends and teammates, past and present. It’s especially jarring for running back Clinton Portis, who played with Taylor at the University of Miami and became his closest friend on the Redskins.

“I don’t think time heals wounds,” he said. “It makes you miss people more. The realization that you’re not gonna see that person, that they’re not coming back, it gets tougher. Early on, you’ve got memories. All of a sudden, once you start repeating memories, you can’t create any more.”

In trying to glean something positive and make some sense of something that seemed so senseless, a number of Redskins have discovered a new perspective.

“It made me think and know that I’m bigger than the guy you see here every day that’s suiting up in the No. 89 jersey,” said receiver Santana Moss, another close friend and teammate of Taylor’s with the Hurricanes and Redskins. “I have two little kids I have to look after, and I have other people I care about, and I wouldn’t want to leave them behind like he did.”

Reminders of Taylor are everywhere. He shows up on game films coaches use to prepare for the next opponent, his No. 21 flying around and causing general mayhem. His locker remains at Redskin Park - burgundy practice jersey and shoes; helmet; towels; a football; pictures of his fiancee, Jackie Garcia, and their daughter, Jackie, all untouched behind glass. No one parks in the space Taylor earned for being named the team’s defensive player of the week against Philadelphia in September 2007.

Portis wears a T-shirt with Taylor’s picture and number under his game jersey and occasionally at practice. Injured defensive end Phillip Daniels never removes a black rubber wristband inscribed with Taylor’s name and number.

“He made you realize ‘What’s my effect going to be on people when I’m gone?’” Portis said. “Anywhere close to the effect that he had on people would be great.”

There are about 4,440 videos related in some way to Taylor on YouTube, far more than for Tom Brady, Brett Favre or Terrell Owens. Not long after a shipment of newly designed Sean Taylor black jerseys arrived recently, a salesman at Modell’s said, “They’re off the rack now.”

According to the NFL, Taylor’s jersey ranks No. 40 in sales among all players, and fans can buy other kinds of apparel and merchandise even though he played his last game for the Redskins 381 days ago. That was before he left the Nov. 11 game against Philadelphia with a knee injury and went back to South Florida to rest up with his fiancee and little Jackie, then 18 months old; before he was shot after midnight Nov. 26 by an intruder who, with four others, tried to rob his house; before the bullet pierced the femoral artery in his left leg and he lost a significant amount of blood, dying at 3:30 the following morning in a Miami hospital.

Although physical reminders of Taylor are everywhere, his deeper and lasting impact tends toward the spiritual and motivational. Redskins defensive coordinator Greg Blache said sometimes while he’s plotting how to stop an opponent, “I’ll just kind of talk to Sean and say, ‘Hey, you got some help for me?’”

Daniels said before he tore up his knee during the first day of training camp, a season-ending injury, he dedicated his offseason regimen to Taylor.

Story Continues →