With A Three Days Notice, Washington Will Retire Sean Taylor’s 21
Early Thursday morning The Washington Football Team announced they will be retiring Sean Taylor’s 21. For any of those that are unfamiliar, Taylor was tragically murdered at his Miami home in 2007. It rocked the Washington organization and fan base.
At that time Taylor was having the best year of his career. In the nine games he played that season, he had five interceptions.
Now, this announcement is inexcusable. It is only three days before the game Sunday, not that anyone might have issues getting tickets. But for a team that is so desperate to bring fans back to FedEx, you would think this would have been announced a lot sooner. Not to mention that they are dead last in attendance this season.
As a 26-year-old fan of this football team, I don’t have a lot of positives to look back on. My youngest memory is seeing them win their only playoff game at FedEx, at that time it was called Jack Kent Cooke Stadium. That was in January of 2000. Since then, it has been nothing short of embarrassing to watch this team at times. I’ve seen my fair share of coaches and players cycle through. There have only been a small handful of players that still give me joy hearing their names. Sean Taylor is one of them. His play was reckless at times. But my generation has not seen a playmaker like him play for the burgundy and gold since.
It just hurts as a lifelong fan seeing the team you have stuck with through all the losing and terrible ownership treat him like this. After protecting his number 21 for this long you would think this would be a bigger deal for the organization. Sean Taylor and his family deserved better. Instead the team is using him as a distraction.
To the fans that’ll be there Sunday, enjoy it. Be loud and make Sean Taylor proud. Something the organization has failed to do.