Sean Taylor: A Football Life SNEAK PREVIEW
A Football Life, Erik Powers, Featured, Washington Redskins
Posted: September 24th, 2014
On December 6th, 2007, I was in my second year out of college and working as a production assistant at NFL Films. We were holding our weekly screening in our theater when the Bills-Redskins segment from Inside the NFL began to play.
It was the first Redskins home game since Sean Taylors murder, and I had been following the story only casually. My impressions were formed from a Michael Wilbon column and online chat on the Washington Posts website, and some transcriptions from Colin Cowherds radio show on the D.C. Sports Blog: Sean had lived some sort of violent lifestyle, and, in some fashion, this caused his murder.
But then, I saw the first shot of the Inside the NFL highlights. It was the fans in the stands before kickoff, holding up white towels with #21 in burgundy and gold. There were so many towels crowding the frame, shielding tear-stained faces, shrinking ever-so-smaller into a distance that harbored thousands upon thousands more. This stadium, this franchise, this fan base were all so shaken by his loss.
Seeing how much Sean meant to Redskins fans, I felt like the man I read about and the man local fans knew must have been two different people. And as details emerged about the circumstances of Seans death, I could only wonder: how could a man sacrifice his life defending his fiancée and infant daughter, and have significant members of the media suggest he somehow brought it upon himself?
When we set about telling Seans story, we requested interviews with 28 of his former teammates, coaches, family members, and friends. We did not conduct interviews with all 28. We talked with 41.
Never before in our series have we had such an overwhelming response and there were even more teammates and coaches who wanted to talk but we could not meet with due to conflicts in the schedule. It is a testament to Sean and how many lives he touched, that so many people were so eager to come forward and help us tell his story.
Out of all the people we hoped to talk to, only two declined interviews:
