Thanksgiving is more than a day of reflection at Redskins Park. It’s the first anniversary of Sean Taylor’s death.
His locker remains behind glass. Former college teammates Clinton Portis and Santana Moss dress on each side just like they protected him in life. Taylor sat between his old pals across the room from secondary teammates. A little unusual by locker room etiquette, but Taylor never cared what others thought. Now teammates keep thinking about him.
“Time has not healed us,” Portis said. “In time, it makes you miss people more. The idea, the realization that you won’t see that person, they’re not coming back, it gets tougher in time.”
Players don’t talk about Taylor around the training facility unless asked. It’s still too raw. Some hope for the death penalty for those involved. One pleaded guilty while four others await trial for murder next year, but the stiffest punishment for the burglary gone horribly wrong will be life imprisonment.
That’s irrelevant, though. The urge for vengeance has been tempered with time, but Taylor’s absence in their lives has not.
“It still bothers me. There’s not a day I don’t look at his locker. Not a Sunday I don’t go to Fedex Field and look at his locker,” running back Rock Cartwright said. “I’m sure the day is going to be bittersweet. I’ll have my family here, but at the same time I’ll be thinking about Sean’s family wishing he was here.”
Players were overwhelmed last year by the public outpouring, including hundreds at Redskins Park that night for a vigil. The team thought the grief was only theirs. They learned the Redskins mean more to the community than wins and losses.
“Most people only know Sean through football on Sunday,” Portis said. “They never had any personal interaction with him. The effect from football that he had on the world is ridiculous. You realize how important football is in everyday life of everybody.”
The Redskins will honor their slain teammate by inducting him into the Ring of Fame on Sunday at FedEx Field before playing the New York Giants. Fans still wear Taylor jerseys, make 2-1 hand signals after plays in remembrance of 21.
Taylor could have been a great player. Instead, he is a painful legend.
“It’s never going to be out your head, out of your mind,” Cartwright said. “He’ll always be here with us.”
Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Contact him at [email protected].
