First Darrent Williams, now Sean Taylor

I have some pretty established internet habits. On Monday and Tuesday mornings, I head over to Sports Illustrated to read Peter King's MMQB columns. This morning, I opened my browser window and went to SI.com to continue this ritual.

What the fuck? I spoke these words out loud which drew a cry of "Dad, LANGUAGE!" from my six year old son.

The reason for my vulgar outburst was that I'd just read the main headline of "Redskins' Taylor Dies". Last I'd heard was that Sean Taylor had squeezed a nurse's hand yesterday evening, and I thought he was going to be okay. According to the aforementioned article, Taylor had never regained consciousness after being transported to the hospital, and they weren't really sure how he'd squeezed the nurse's hand.

I wrote an article over at Fanboom.com, a place where I am a freelance football writer. I'm not going to rehash the details in this post.

I know that over the next few days, weeks and months, more information will come out about this tragedy. I want to know why this was the second time in 8 days that an intruder had broken into Taylor's home. I wonder if it's because of his celebrity. Peter King has similar thoughts here.

When I first read the article, my mind was taken back to Darrent Williams, another 24 year old father and football player who was killed this year. Police are still looking for Williams' killer or killers. In both of these cases, these young, black men died while doing the right thing. Darrent Williams had just left a New Year's Eve/Birthday party and was about to text message his mother when he was killed. Let me clarify. In an era where this guy, this guy and ESPECIALLY this guy can't stay out of trouble for their shitty choices, Williams was out partying, but had hired a limo driver, instead of drunk driving like an idiot. He'd made a choice to be responsible, and was killed. What's sad is that I think if Williams had decided to drive under the influence in his own vehicle, I think he might be alive. But, that's just speculation.

Sean Taylor was at home in bed with his girlfriend, while his daughter slept. He heard noises and woke up, grabbed a weapon and prepared to defend his family, like almost any father and man of the house. He paid for it with his life.

In each of these deaths, I felt for the children of these men. My father died when I was 11. Taylor's daughter is 1. Williams had a 7 year old son and a 4 year old daughter. What will happen to these children? Were their fathers savvy enough to put money away for college? Is the family home paid for? Will these children have a chance?

In less than a year, the NFL lost two great players, fathers, sons, friends. What is the answer? More guns? Less guns? I don't know. I'm not going to get political in this. When does it end?