Sean Taylor - RIP UPDATED

Fucking strawman again.

She's famous for this.

"If this happened to ... then this would happen." Then she writes the hell out of that premise as if it's fact. It's something she pulled out of thin air to make her point.

Say what you will about Whitlock, he doesn't pull that crap.

It's lazy and bush league and she's better than that.

 

OK, before this becomes ... well, typical.

These were comments taken from a very large, detailed discussion on a private listserve about the appropriate context in which to put Sean Taylor's past. This is reference to a specific story about Taylor, that I felt included some things that did not include appropriate context. I made several posts, and yes, I told the author it was OK to use any of my multitude of comments -- in which my basic gist was that it's fair game to use Taylor's past as long as it is within the context of what's happening now and the current investigation and not in the well-look-at-his-past-he-deserved-it fashion. A soundbite was used, but trust me, it was a much richer discussion.

 

Jemele,

Larger discussion or no, if Brett Favre were murdered in his home not long after stories surfaced about his drug addiction, yes, I do think the media would speculate the two were connected. If Brett Favre were murdered tomorrow, it's unlikely that would happen (at least as much), because years and years have passed between when Favre had to go to detox. Just as the connection would have been less likely drawn if Sean Taylor had 10 years of avoiding brushes with the law.

Here is a better strawman: If Cris Carter were murdered in his home tomorrow, would there be major speculation about his past cocaine use? Probably not. We don't view Cris Carter that way anymore because he changed his life, and put some serious time and distance between that past and who he is now. Yet Carter is as black as Taylor.

If Pacman Jones were murdered in a home invasion tomorrow, would it be wrong to ask these kind of questions?

 

No one asked the same questions when Darrent Williams was gunned down. There's probably a reason for that.

 

It's almost pointless to get into this now, because there's about a million different directions this could go ... and none of them lead to Taylor being anything other than dead.

That said, criminals are generally not the brightest bulbs. If the perp was after Taylor, it's entirely possible he kept showing up and leaving because he thought he wouldn't be discovered. Then, when he killed him, he figured he better make it look like a robbery.

Who the fuck really knows?

 

At the same time, the Darrent Williams one was pretty easy to figure out ... and there were plenty of witnesses to the events that led to the shooting.

 

For the record, I did not disagree that Taylor's gun possession incident or the incident where his car was shot up was improper to include in a story, given that retaliation is a possible motive, although not a justification. I was, and remain, uncomfortable with some of the speculation.

 

Sean Taylor is dead.

Let's just keep it at that right now.

 

Thanks, two posts. Care to lead the discussions the rest of the night?

Fetch me a fucking beer.

 

Fuck you, Mustard.

I knew Sean. You don't, I guess.

Sean was a great guy.

 

Wait a second..."leave it at that right now?"

"I knew Sean, you don't?"


Anyone else getting the deja vu?