A Football Life Sean Taylor

I remember everybody called it man you bought crazy him like what happened cuz I wasn't watching the pro ball that's why he can be known as one of the best safeties to play the game situation for you down in Florida I heard you were in fact two shot out did that make everything a little more real how did that change you well you know I really not coming on it's just you know you've seen a couple players and in the last couple of weeks you know be subject to shootings and it's just a life changing thing with one shot of a bullet or whatever the case is you know it changes lives [Music] [Music] [Music] for a man who has had thousands of photographs capture his life Sean Taylor lacks a clear image during his career he granted few interviews and kept a close inner circle the public was never allowed to develop a full picture of Sean Taylor jean-michel Taylor was born to donna jr. and pete taylor who parted ways before his birth for the first ten years of his life he lived in the Miami area with his mother great-grandmother and half-siblings mo nica Jamal and Sasha the energy he had on that fill was the same energy had when he was little kicking rocks when I walked home from school asking somebody underneath the car what are you doing sir just always going never stopped he just want to follow my brother all the time and the 3 wheeler buddy you know he's always want to get on it and ride it with my brother and so we ended up buying him one and he he loves it that really should be out with my mother can't compare for anyone else I think he was more so a protector and that started from being younger he felt like he was the man of the house by the time I mean his father would always come by I see him you know Christmas bring presents he always was in his life but that bond that he had with my mother I think when he had to go stay with his dad that that really hurt him because he would be away from her when Taylor was 10 his mother battled an illness he and his siblings were broken apart sent to live with their respective fathers he kind of went into a shout he's very quiet you know and not really that happy-go-lucky child that he was it just kind of changed him a little I didn't really know how long you billed me I thought it's gonna be a short time I try to read emphasize that I'm not the person that's gonna try to keep you away from your mom if any brothers and sisters Taylor still felt responsible to be the man of the house for his mother he planned to reunite and protect her children he was like I see I'm gonna play football and I'm gonna make money he really wanted everyone to be together when his mom and his sisters and brothers may buy together [Music] and I think that was his focus that drove him [Music] Taylor started running back in safety from Miami's Gulliver prep his desire and gifts were honed by his father who put him through a rigorous daily training regimen workouts could happen anytime anywhere even get in front of his house work out his daddy would get us up take us trick us alright come on let's go get something some some slushy we're getting slushies and assume you get back in the car here take your slushies and make you run to the house now you gotta run all the way home to get the slushies like there's no better motivator than Pete Taylor as remember stories of Shawntel highways am i what do you mean like what car is going by if it was like yeah man just out there running in my time morning time before school after school [Music] relaxation did not come easy for Taylor he bristled at the idea of someone out working him he was competitive in everything in fishing he was competitive in the state championship game the running back on the opposing team was mr. football for two a for our classification really really and you know you give that to Sean to a player of the year and Sean was trying to rip that guy's head off every single time that guy's touched the ball that deal just trying to hunt down number five and every time those two helmets come together there weren't smokin [Applause] [Music] Shawn tailored make tailor made three trips to the end zone to Dudley's one and set a state record with his 44th touchdown of the season for tagging [Music] I couldn't get the ball off I have gotten flush and I had to get turned around before I finally song he was wide open the film of it is hysterical because I mean he is throwing it all out tantrum [Applause] Tayler ended his high school career a state champion one step closer to his dream of using football stardom to reunite his mother's side of the family when we returned he always wanted to have kids when we started dating in college if it was up to him it was like we would have had like an army you know 19 years old which was hanging a fly by my father every but during high school Sean Taylor lived with his father and the Colonial Drive section of Miami he attended Gulliver prep a prestigious private school but potential danger was never far away this is a luxurious area this is middle class but at the same time work basically squished in between two hoods both hoods basically come in here and then this is the meeting ground where the war could potentially happen we had to find a way that basically I guess you say separate ourselves from the negativity things that was going on as far as in the streets and things of that nature and focused just on sports and things that kept us in more of a positive direction however we always knew how to let it be known that we was never gonna be pushovers either I don't know if he was 14 or 15 playing basketball on the park somehow it got into some sort of an altercation and a guy pulled a gun on him put it to his head and it jammed he should have been he told me he should have been gone and when it jammed he knocked it out and ran but Taylor never considered escaping the area entirely Miami was his home it would also be his college and the position he would play for the Hurricanes was of great interest to junior running back Clinton Portis I hadn't heard of Sean Taylor and all of a sudden they they fixing the incoming recruit highlight film and I'm latex litt went in and because it's highlights we're all running back he's jumping over people here I'm like who is this and I remember calling coach solid to light who was he he was like he's coming to play safety he'll want if they run back I'm like what I remember my first visit than watch down practice we got to the cave he said for you yet to see and we say shocked Taylor and he just called come on in come on in you know that we're gonna be on first make first rain gee stop when I first saw him I was like wow you know beasts you didn't have to touch that kid man he knew how to play the game he's a man among his boys he's won the interceptions bet he's running puns back he was doing so much whyis the safety in the country definitely one of my favorite place was against Florida State he kissed him caught a pass he just like knocked him flat on his ass made him do like a 360 at Miami Taylor also started dating Jackie Garcia who he had a crush on since high school we had like science or something together so I guess he went home that night I met this girl at school I like her but I need to learn Spanish because she's Cuban least I don't wanna learn Spanish she saw that come home speaking this man is one of them talk to him in Spanish so he can be to communicate a little bit his junior season Taylor intercepted 10 passes to lead the nation he returned three four touchdowns it's just a tackle after tackle interception op - interception they just went from Mike here and like you just blew out after just three years at Miami Taylor declared for the draft drawing the attention of a former teammate now in Washington I remember you know telling coach Gibbs and Greg Williams like when you draft sons Haley and he would call on the phone and he'd go shine he'd go like that that's what he didn't hang up I'm sorry Taylor University of Miami the hardest hit in a drive the hardest hitter in the draft chose not to attend it Taylor stayed in Florida to celebrate with his family he was actually living his dream he sucks his entire life on an NFL pillow until the day he got drafted and I still have it I was like wow he really did this he was sitting there he would talk to us and say you know life is gonna change and you know things are gonna be better and you know just just it was never about herself it was always about everybody else which was which made it even more [Music] with the fifth pick in the 2004 NFL Draft the Washington Redskins select John Taylor safety University of Miami he was very part he was proud that he was gonna be able to take coming up I was like when your dad took you fishing when you were seven years old couldn't sleep the night before the judge yes fishing Sean did that was football football love it smash somebody there was only four of us drafted in 2004 from the Redskins Sean and I and then two offensive linemen we went to the rookie symposium together and I remember Sean asking me in the room what did what is this I said well it's three days they teach you how to be an NFL football player you go through all kinds of stuff and he said I'm not I'm not doing this what he's talking about he said I'm going back to Miami we had a player leave you all are reminded that nobody leaves without coming through me getting permission to leave no matter what unless you're in the ambulance I mean ah because I'm so green out of Utah State I'm looking at him going you just do whatever you want to do huh I like that I like that he kind of charted his own path in life you were gonna have to earn your way with him he wasn't going to be somebody that just came in and immediately would be friends with you or as a coach you know have a close relationship with you and be willing to do whatever you wanted to do he was his own man Sean had great instincts of people and that Sean did not have the ability and to really turn the cheek much in his life on anything and that he wanted you to be honest with him at all times and one one dishonest comment one thing from body language he was great with that too would turn him off Sean Taylor soured quickly on the media thanks to a teammates prank I remember levar Arrington coming from behind and hitting him with a shaving cream pie the menthol shaving cream pie burned Taylor's eyes as well as bridges with the local press I really felt like that was it oh he's like who are you guys to laugh at me from that moment the media could only be a detriment they would never get to know the real me so why put up this fake facade and give you some BS quotes when you know I don't want to talk to you and I know I don't want to talk to you and now what you get out of me isn't really I'm gonna help you do your job so f it how would you grade a warning stay one negotiations for Taylor's rookie contract were tense while his agent changed three times his stands with the media did not as Taylor remained silent the criticism grew louder hidden o'healey direct symposium and you had the contract issues and everything else that was going on and this is all before he played down there was so much negative press no behind him that you know I think he came to win this for sale taylor kept his time in front of cameras two game days and his preseason debut he ended his first series with an interception first game NFL keep his best player on the field and you could see [Applause] I said all right we got ourselves a Hall of Fame Pro Bowl player here take away in two and a quarter games for the Redskins everybody could see even though our list of top flight athletes it was something different about it and it separated him from the rest of them we were playing against Cincinnati we talked about this play all week and we were like you know Sean you're gonna go out there under Chad Johnson make him throw it high and I also get to like come over the top and like be the hero he jumps up and picks it off [Applause] you drew it up to be a good play he made it a great play he made of eternal he made us of mere mortals can't do God made certain people to play football for sure he was one of them [Music] but Taylor was not made to be away from home for long he would always want to win because I think they had the day off on Monday and if you win you'd get Tuesday off so he knew Sunday night or whatever out of there and try to catch a flight back Tuesday night so he'd go home even if it was for a date you never know that you know he'll be gone anything I liked yeah yeah it's me even the roots Taylor put down in Washington had Miami ties until he found a home he stayed with college teammate Clinton Portis and he continued courting hurricane soccer player Jackie Garcia when Jackie was playing in the area he was going to see it and one that he had even drove to Virginia Tech or something or maybe they played Virginia like somewhat crazy he would come and hang out at night but then we had like curfew and odd stuff so you can he can really hang out past a certain time so then if I had to I think we had to be up like at 7 or something he would come back like at 5:00 because he's like oh well five it's not really like you're breaking the rule like you can just be up early you know it's like so I would wake up pretty early and we would hang out you know in the lobby downstairs he would be at 8 o'clock workout group and lead to work our group like now I know he he didn't get no sleep and now you back in time for eight o'clock workouts and you know he's the first one across the line and then you know you will find out later that day while he worked out at 9:00 and he worked out with a sin o'clock group so you're like what is he doing and he probably get three workouts then when I couldn't find one but on a Thursday in October Taylor mist team workouts he had been arrested the night before after a teammates birthday party on suspicion of drunk driving on the tape Taylor tells the officer he's only had one glass of champagne uses to take a breathalyzer so the officer administers several sobriety tests Taylor is quizzed about the date and time and told to touch the tip of a pencil Taylor was released from custody and time to attend practice but he chose to remain home I get on the phone son like what you doing it late come to the facility he was like man not coming over there you know like the media over that I deal with it tomorrow instead of comes to the facility he'd go home and cook a steak and you don't want to play Madden and I'm just ahead like man is doing crazy the judge dismissed the drunk driving charge Taylor who rarely talks to the media broke his silence briefly walking breathing smiling talking that whole first year I think was pretty traumatic really and I was kind of looking at it as the coach going man we got a great player this guy he's gonna be hard to handle up next when my daughter was born she didn't speak any English until she was two and a half they communicated through broken Spanish he was obsessed for her [Music] in the spring of 2005 the Redskins held voluntary workouts Sean Taylor remained in Miami Redskins OTAs are a big deal and it was just like where is he where is he but I never got the sense that Gregg was freaked out about it we had little bitty safeguards going on where we were checking in with each other no one else knew I could trust him he could trust me he was spending time with his grandmother while in Miami news broke that Taylor was involved in an assault concerning two ATVs that were stolen from him I was to turn himself in I think it scared him to death you know scared him today [Music] some guys from the neighborhood - there's ATVs he knew who they were people from the neighborhood were calling him saying these guys have your ATVs and they're riding up and down the streets and he called the police the first thing you did so after 2 or 3 days of getting in phone calls of these kids out here no pop wheelies and clowning he made a decision to go get his ATVs Taylor was accused of waving a gun and hitting one of the thieves during the altercation just hours later Taylor himself was confronted these guys came back you know Wilson make a forty-sevens and if you're familiar with an ak-47 I mean they call it a chopper and it will just chop everything in weight he said the bullets were just cutting through the house and he had to barefoot jump the fence and take off while Taylor was charged with assault no one else involved in the incident was ever arrested at training camp Taylor declined to give his version of events to reporters he was never one of those guys to be like what you're reporting about me other stories you hear are wrong here's what really happened and so from the outside world you hear those things you perceived them as the truth and then the misconception people have is that okay we hear these things about him living recklessly off the field and we believe them because we watch him play football and when he plays football he's reckless and so people thought that was who he was but it wasn't even for his teammates knowing what stories to believe about Taylor could be difficult unless witnessed in person when I first got here in o5 I used to see this BMW sit in the parking lot all the time and I'm a maxim port like who cars that he loved that size and he's giggled about it and somebody washed his car here every day and he like Osama he normally runs home so you know I'm sitting here like what I mean one day I caught him I'm leaving out late and I see him just running down the street those are things that now you look back at when we played the game never got tired that's why because he put in the work behind closed doors there a lot of guys don't do we'd be up there in a half session to go look at that and I'd be shine before practice running hard yards Striders on the field now the coaches tell them to do that just in his mind that was something he felt like he should do 2005 season he had so much fun before the Eagle game I was just like I'm so pumped up you know I wanted to do something different we're on the national stage lunges lay man come on Sean like let's do something yeah we're getting ready play a game and it's Sean and Clinton and they got strike socks on what are you doing these are the two guys who express their individual [Music] it did quite frankly pissed me off I confronted him about it and he goes out the next week and took 40 50 pieces of tape and just taped up his facemask which he can't didn't I told the equipment manager take the facemask off get it off before he goes out there it gets another fine and so they put it in my locker and I'll be damned if he didn't go ahead and tape up the one they put on anyway and he still went ahead and got fine what a big guy from safe I think he loved that part of it but it was more than just a big head he had unusual hands face for where the ball was gonna be I remember we're at Philadelphia we had to win the game to get in the playoffs and all of a sudden the game there goes the ball flying around he comes up with it Shawn [Applause] he had a knack for just big play every game he do some to let you know that he wasn't from this planet and all of us were breaks me of Florida can't get no better [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] that was probably one of the best games that usually the playmaker in and you see the nastiness in Sean Taylor and Michael Pittman square it off and your God I remember are you in you know we in the rat-faced he he didn't do it you know and we go back and watch film and you just see big as day this big glob come out the word we got is he spit in Pittman space he did it what I mean what else you want me to say Taylor let his emotions get the better of him on the field and in the delivery room Sean yes I want everybody out everybody out so you talk about I want everybody out so he pushes everybody the door like yeah what's wrong with Shaw he was very very protective of her didn't want you to touch her kiss there he had to him blankets on I used to him boy I had about two children get out my face here we go come on a nice nice print for daddy or mommy he told me that he's gonna put the footprints of the baby on his shirt so I say did you put the fruit purse of the baby I'm sure he lifts up his shirt and there's a two-front press on his chest no problem because he was happy and he was able to walk away and say I have something to do not have to take care of this kid and I have a reason to do this right just a month after his daughter was born Taylor agreed to a plea deal that dismissed the felony assault charges against him he received 18 months probation I think it's in my best interest of my family my friends for me for my team after that he grew up a lot of things that he did in his younger years he cut out by going out you know hanging with certain people and doing certain things after that event he just took his family his daughter and in football it changed that that thing clicked and the little thing that he and I had from a family standpoint his grandmother standpoint and now all of a sudden being a father those things kind of clicked into him and you we all started to see a little bit calmer Sean outside the white lines but the white lines teller was thriving [Applause] in 2006 he earned his first trip to the Pro Bowl and delivered the hip heard round the world [Music] pretty much translates in every language doesn't they Esther does up next you knew the real person was coming the one that all of us knew that everybody else didn't see he wanted to buy a house that everyone can kind of come together you know all her siblings our friend from high school was his realtor and when he walked into the house he stood in the kitchen he's like I can just picture myself and like all my family in front of me I mean cooking for them so it was like the family house everybody can come there and feel comfortable whenever I was around all of them it just made me feel a home by 2007 Sean Taylor had accomplished his goal of using football to reunite his mother's side of the family after the birth of baby Jackie he considered moving to Virginia full time with his fiancee and daughter Taylor's coaches also had a move in mind for him from strong to free safety it took a while for me to convince him to line up that deep but a time and distance that he could cover was amazing he was everywhere like it didn't matter short long medium we're on the pass he was there you would think it was 11 Sean Taylor zooms only war you know what he intercepted Brett Favre had to that day he dropped three other ones he should have had five that day Brett was looking them off to the last moment and slinging it to the next sideline Sean would turn around Brett Farr turned out it was going to be an easy completion [Music] we went even halfway through the year yet five interceptions already but the best stretch of Taylor's career would come to an abrupt end [Music] Sean Taylor limping off the field he's got something going on he's not healthy at this stage of the season the same day as his injury Taylor's mother reported an attempted burglary at the family's Miami home I was in a training room he was in the China room he's like hey somebody tried to break into my house I'm like dang you know he's like man hey lucky I wasn't there and he's like man my kid my you know my girl be that man you know I don't want them you know somebody's doing this to me Sean Taylor's home has been broken into someone pried open a window rifled through his drawers and tried to get into his safe in his bedroom we weren't allowed to go back to the house I mean it was somebody breaks in two hours you don't know what happened it's almost like your privacy's been invaded so I think the best thing to do is not go back call his team-mates traveled to Tampa an injured tailor flew to Miami to check on his home and family we woke up that day and we went on a bike ride and then that night we all went back and I cooked and we spoke about like that we were gonna you know move to Virginia we were gonna start our called it our niche there and [Music] you know he just it was like the sense of like peace inside of him you know I don't it was just like I was I remember like going to sleep at night and being like God like if you could just be like this everyday like wow you know like my life is gonna be amazing some jolting news off the field on Monday Redskins safety Sean Taylor in critical condition after he was shot in his Florida home early Monday morning police officers were dispatched to Taylor's Miami area home in 1:45 a.m. and Taylor was later airlifted to a local hospital the first thing I was thinking is where is he why would he be shot he's not even supposed to be here like I didn't even know he was in town because he'd really didn't tell too much of us that he was coming that weekend he was home with his girlfriend Jackie Garcia and their 18 month-old daughter they heard noise in the living room were awakened got up Sean locked the bedroom door went under his bed for a small machete that he keeps under there by the time he got to the bedroom door was burst open and two shots were fired one hit him in the upper leg and one hit the wall he was bleeding profusely from the leg apparently his femoral artery was hit and he was bleeding out we're inside the room he was laying there that's the machines hooked up I was holding his hand I was talking to him and I just hey it's gonna be okay just you got a fight I say because of what you understand it's gonna be a struggle you have to fight you know you remember hard work you know you gotta push through this after a day-long stream of grave news a glimmer of hope came Monday night from the bedside vigil for Sean Taylor I've got the accident move his eyes he responded he also asks him to squeeze his hands he responded although you know there were reports saying that you know he was doing better it didn't look good at all they were giving him a blood transfusion and and around the bed they had like sheets and as as the arm as the blood you know they put it in it was just cool coming out I mean more vexing wrong man thinking about if we make it through tonight that everything gonna be okay and I dozed off and I woke up to banging on the door boom boom boom boom boom I remember opening my eyes and I looked at the window and when I looked at the window it was still a dark guy and I banged on the door and I could hear him start crying immediately and I was he opened the door I was in tears and and it was terrible good sleep I was hoping that that call would be he's alright in these Cove [Music] they scoff the worse caller probably had a life today [Music] you're the doctor P&I [Music] he said if the bullet would have went in an eighth of an inch up down left or right there'll be no more flesh and he said Shawn was dead when he got here and he said that he never seen a man fighting for his life as hard as he did [Music] coming up I've gotten to tell stories about Shawn more because people ask me why am i wearing number 21 to practice I just loved it I don't want everybody else to in the days after Sean Taylor's death his team grappled with how to spend a season and a lifetime without him I was asleep in bed I looked up in the corner heard his voice I saw him and he said coach that plays over let's get on the next one before we got ready to play that Sunday game we said hey nobody in this room will ever be able to substitute or replace him as a player we need to play one play for him [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I think we gave up 50 are on it and didn't matter this was for son [Music] some did not wait for details to emerge about Taylor's murder he experienced legal trouble early in his career and played violently on the field they saw his death as an extension of the lifestyle they thought he lived when Shawn passed away Michael Wilbon really upset me from ESPN because he he kind of made it seem like if there was one player in the league that you would expect this to have it too a little bit some and Shawn wasn't an angel [Applause] Colin Cowherd was on ESPN Radio and he's talking about how this is what you get this is the natural reaction to your actions this guy asked for it act like a thug want to be a thug die like a thug was basically the connotation of what he was saying [Applause] [Music] waving his gun out there and see if they thought somebody was stole his SUV there there is a track record here with Shawntel let's just go through this called me to yourself maybe what you're saying now there's some truth to it but right now we don't know the facts yet there were assumptions made about how he brought this on himself just weeks before there had been a birthday party at Taylor's house for his sister and it was her friends from Fort Myers who had come to clean the pool deck Sean Taylor had paid one of the guys who ended up being involved in this $300 other guys had got access to the house they saw how generous he was with his money he gave bags of money to his sister and brother in front of his friends and it was that generosity that ended up inviting these scoundrels from fort myers to come and do what they did I was upset I found a lot of things even so today it hurts really bad it hurts and now it's like I never trust anybody before but now I was like it's really hard to trust like anybody I had already made up my mind that I was gonna forgive him but I wanted to know if you know he was worthy of it I know my words may not mean much over the past six years I learned that mr. Taylor was a good man and I'm not making excuses for my decisions or my actions he was trying to say he was sorry but he wouldn't look at anybody in the eyes I stood up and I said look at me hi there with his death every day and I'm not there with the consequences and I'm truly sorry when he lost I wanted to know if he really was sorry he wouldn't he didn't he wouldn't look what should Sean Taylor's legacy the plaque in life he never gave the outside world a full picture of the man he was is it even possible to capture his memory in one image there's not a day I take that Jersey off of a hanger and I don't think about people ask me why am I wearing number 21 in practice every day I wear this sparks up a conversation about him for as long as I play that's what I care about it's not a single day to go by that you can't come up with a memory or Sun and puts you in a better mood Shawn's always with me he's looking over my shoulder at all times to make sure everything is right so I put that crystal monument behind me that he has my back I'm coaching my tenure over Anza I put him playing a corner and he goes I don't want to play corner and I wear tie this is what do you want to play and he goes I wore a place safety I'm Sean Taylor one day I was at the Fayette County Youth fair and down in Miami and this little kid walked by me and my friend but we looking like a mouse drop it was Shawn who comes 10 feet behind Pedro or the NSR Berlin there's a greatest in every one of us it's always good to see Gabriel looking up to someone that did the work that you can follow to me and tonight his daughter like he was a living hero he loved himself in her he was such an amazing person outside of his career and a lot of people didn't get to see he would have been an amazing father [Music]

Channel: Zach Crutcher

Views: 2,381,211

Keywords: A Football Life, Sean Taylor, NFL Network, NFL Films, Washington D.C., Miami, Washington Redskins, NFL, NFL Hard Hitters, Clinton Portis, Ryan Clark, Joe Gibbs, NFL Football, Football, Miami Football, Miami Hurricanes, Ed Reed, The U, Gregg Williams, Gone too soon, Rest in Peace

Id: Y55TysdVVxk

Length: 44min 35sec (2675 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 08 2017