It Almost Isn't Fair

Let me be up front about something before getting to the eulogies about Sean Taylor. I never liked him as a player or a person. I thought he was a hot dog on the football field and a big talker off the field who was vastly over rated as player. I think he made several mistakes which cost UM games including the 2002 National Championship game against Ohio State, but always did root for him as a Cane and a Former Cane despite my reservations about him. This having been said his senseless death at the hands of an intruder leaves me at such a loss and even worse the attempts of some at ESPN to once again like Brian Pata's death spin this into an anti-Miami story is at best yellow journalism and is at worst another reason why we as Canes supporters should avoid the Disney networks at all cost.

Taylor's personal life hasn't been crystal clean, but it wasn't the mess Mike Wilbon made it out to be on PTI. Wilbon claimed Taylor had a long arrest record in college, but that simply isn't true. His problems with the law began after he was drafted by Redskins. Somehow Wilbon and others at the Disney networks are trained it appears to mention arrest, tragedy, and Miami in the same sentence. Now I will grant that Wilbon and his sidekick whose name I won't utter here seem to think they are the experts on all things Washington Redskins and DC Metropolitan area also. Heck, I watch a lot of soccer as many of you know and Wilbon despite trashing the MLS (but not the sport- he likes European Soccer) from time to time even styles himself as an expert on DC United. But Wilbon seemed to be acting on what appears to be an official ESPN policy regarding Miami. This is the case even though Miami has had only two active players arrested this decade (okay, three if you include inactive Robert Marve's drinking arrest in Coconut Grove last month) as compared to close to 50 at Tennessee, over 30 at South Carolina and over 25 at Florida. Yes, the media always seems to assuage the character of any player who comes from Miami, because of Miami. Sure Sean Taylor made some mistakes but in ESPN's eyes it was because of Miami, while in the case of the Leonard Little, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry, etc their connection to Tennessee Volunteer Football is NEVER mentioned by ESPN when they are caught in trouble. ESPN's talking heads all seem to have attended schools with more NCAA violations and investigations than Miami, or more trouble makers than Miami. Last year a Tennessee grad and a USC grad both advocated the shutting down of the Miami program on air when the brawl with FIU took place.

As Sean Taylor joins a list of tragic early Miami deaths including (but not limited to) Jerome Brown, Shane Curry, Chris Campbell, Marlon Barnes, Al Blades, Brad Timpf, Stanley Shakesphere and Brian Pata, we as the family around this besieged program need to stop our squabbling about such subjects as whether Kyle Wright really had any heart or was a loser or whether Lance Leggett was tanking games. (For the record Wright won me over late this year as a kid I will always root for- I don't think his ability was anywhere near where people thought it was coming out of High School and ultimately I wish he hadn't been our Quarterback the last few seasons, but he was and unlike so many others he understood the pride involved in wearing the "U" on his helmet) and to realize we are in this together against the forces that relish 5-7 Miami seasons and profit off of tragedy involving our former players and our Cane family.