Redskins' Sean Taylor Dies...

[salsadancer7]

Here is this whole "dump your friends because you are rich" put in perspective by Miami Herald writer/ESPN reporter Dan LeBard.

The past is a constant tension with today's athlete, though. The inability to cut ties with it is part of what gets Michael Vick and Pac-Man Jones wrecked and may have harmed Taylor, too. It is easy to say the rich and famous should just forget about childhood troublemakers who might threaten their richness and fame. But listen to Hall of Famer Michael Irvin, who came from a place not unlike Taylor, on the subject:

''People always want to talk about the fruit of the situation and not the root,'' he says. ``It is probably best that you cut off all the guys you grew up with and not say another word to them. It is probably the right thing to do. But what do you do when you pick up that toothbrush, and you are alone in the mirror, and you remember that guy's mom fed you when you had nothing? You are wearing a $150,000 watch and you can't give him $5,000?''

Irvin marvels at how quickly people who didn't come from his place are to dismiss people who did.

''I'm not saying you grew up with a silver spoon in your mouth, but you had a spoon,'' he says. ``A lot of guys didn't. Where were you when we were starving? I didn't have a Christmas. I'd have cornflakes but no sugar. So I borrowed sugar from someone in the hood. And I ate my cornflakes with water. You ever felt that situation?''

Lose your friends. Get rid of your friends. Taylor likely heard that a lot after one of his bad public moments.

''That's easy to do when you are only living in the head,'' Irvin says. ``But when I remember someone feeding me when I didn't have anything, now we're living in my heart.''

And what can you do but cry when that heart stops living?

Le Batard: No logic to a tombstone with 1983-2007 on it - 11/27/2007 - MiamiHerald.com

 

[charper1]

Sad to read he has died, BUT something inside me says we have not yet begun to know what REALLY happened in that house or in the weeks preceding it.

 

[salsadancer7]

Sad to read he has died, BUT something inside me says we have not yet begun to know what REALLY happened in that house or in the weeks preceding it.

Yes it is sad...but I think it will look more like a botched break-in turned homicide. They cleared the rumor of the phone lines being cut....and released information from the previous break-in stating that they went through a safe the house looked empty for the winter(which him and his girlfriend did during the winter to be in DC for the football season).

 

[vurbano]

let me see if i understand some of you guys here. are you saying because taylor associated with less desirables, that means he should have been shot.....maybe, murdered?

Can you read??? Who said that? Or can you not understand what you read? which is it?

 

[charper1]

I sure do not buy into anything said by that excuse making, crack head Michael Irvin; and I just don't buy that reasoning anyway - the bottom line is sometimes you MUST remove the bad elements from your younger life to protect your current life; especially for you family and in this case your ACTUAL LIFE . Just because that person's mama may have fed you way back; doesn't mean you still can offer the money to HER directly and then disown the trouble making son/friend, you damn sure don't owe him crap. Any real friends would not place you in those bad situations or allow these types of things to continuously occur!

 

[brainiac]

Here is this whole "dump your friends because you are rich" put in perspective by Miami Herald writer/ESPN reporter Dan LeBard.




Le Batard: No logic to a tombstone with 1983-2007 on it - 11/27/2007 - MiamiHerald.com

Thanks for finding this article, Salsa. As one who had to eat corn flakes with water as a kid at times, I can relate to what Irvin is saying. I think he's really grown up over the last few years. You don't forget the people who help you out in times like those. Even so, however, you can't continue to get caught up in the negative things out of loyalty. You have to either raise people up with you, or leave them behind. Easier said than done, but people do it everyday.

 

[salsadancer7]

I sure do not buy into anything said by that excuse making, crack head Michael Irvin; and I just don't buy that reasoning anyway - the bottom line is sometimes you MUST remove the bad elements from your younger life to protect your current life; especially for you family and in this case your ACTUAL LIFE . Just because that person's mama may have fed you way back; doesn't mean you still can offer the money to HER directly and then disown the trouble making son/friend, you damn sure don't owe him crap. Any real friends would not place you in those bad situations or allow these types of things to continuously occur!

I disagree. He has perspective you do not have. I have a similar background that Michael Irvin came from and though I was no where near into the stuff some of these guys were in....I know EXACTLY what he meant and he is absolutely right. He is a recovery drug addict....like alot of famous people. But for some reason we ONLY give breaks/another chance to those we like... I am guilty myself.

 

[charper1]

Sorry, but loyalty has to to run both ways and at some point it must end as opposed to being held onto so blindly or in the case where it threatens one's self and/or their family; its obvious that NOT doing so has dire consequences and his little baby now grows up with no father and likely minimal or no financial security for his family. Where is the loyalty in that? His loyalties should have shifted to his family long ago! Screw that street/gang code sh*t, grow up and be MEN! Be yourself! Conduct yourself like responsible adults!

 

[NpaulTodd]

University of Miami, Thug, convicted felon (that's why he didnt have a gun). Why do the Skins keep drafting these kids with character problems?

& thats why he was killed , felon or not if your going to play with the wrong crowd , Strap up !

 

[riffjim4069]

And we walk a number of people like you out of our buildings every year...

Would that be your hamburger pressing or french fry preparation building?

 

[brainiac]

Would that be your hamburger pressing or french fry preparation building?

Is that the best you can come up with? What is it...GD?

 

[sidekick]

An artery in the leg is still an artery.

Yea ,it is ,Since I thought TV said he was shot in the leg.

 

[sidekick]

I agree with the logic in what you're saying. However, Salsa is right. Unless you've been there, you really don't know. In the hood, you have more than one family, and at times, the wrong family wins the tug of war of reason and responsibility.

Sorry, but loyalty has to to run both ways and at some point it must end as opposed to being held onto so blindly or in the case where it threatens one's self and/or their family; its obvious that NOT doing so has dire consequences and his little baby now grows up with no father and likely minimal or no financial security for his family. Where is the loyalty in that? His loyalties should have shifted to his family long ago! Screw that street/gang code sh*t, grow up and be MEN! Be yourself! Conduct yourself like responsible adults!

 

[charper1]

In the hood, you have more than one family

You don't really; its flawed thinking they maintain that allows them to beleive this.

at times, the wrong family wins the tug of war of reason and responsibility.

Correct, because the hood is NOT their family; just a perception. That very same hood family would stab or rob him the first chance they get to have his fame or money or whatever; and they did. That ain't family.

 

[salsadancer7]

I agree with the logic in what you're saying. However, Salsa is right. Unless you've been there, you really don't know. In the hood, you have more than one family, and at times, the wrong family wins the tug of war of reason and responsibility.

I see where he(Charper1) is coming from...but I really don't think people think about what Michael said because of, not only his history, but also it sounds like he is digging/pulling out excuses. And truth be told, it sometimes does.....I question what some of these guys say sometimes because I am no longer in that life and I have my wife and kids....but then you think about what is said and think about your past and you cannot avoid saying to yourself...."he is absolutely right....."

 

[charper1]

Right Salsa, you have done exactly what I said and they didn't! That easy. And (I assume) along with all the regular reasons such as self respect, laws, marriage and kids, they obviously have a much larger financial reason to do what you were smart enough to do yourself.

 

[salsadancer7]

Right Salsa, you have done exactly what I said and they didn't! That easy. And (I assume) along with all the regular reasons such as self respect, laws, marriage and kids, they obviously have a much larger financial reason to do what you were smart enough to do yourself.

But I REALLY have to tell you Charper....it TRULY was not easy....really not easy....

 

[charper1]

Well, that being said; you are more of a MAN than he, Ivrin and the like appear or claim to be and I do congratulate you. It takes a real man to admit he has/had a problem, but more of a man to do something about it and to maintain it! Good job sir!

 

[charper1]

.....his little baby now grows up with no father and likely minimal or no financial security for his family. Where is the loyalty in that? ........ Screw that street/gang code sh*t, grow up and be MEN! Be yourself! Conduct yourself like responsible adults!

Adding some of the financials that the CBA and league will pay for his child and/or assignee(s)..


---------
The family will receive a number of benefits, including a $600,000 life insurance policy; his sister was named as the beneficiary of his life insurance policy.

Among the several other benefits available to his family: dependent medical insurance through the first game of 2008 through the "active player policy," and then five further years of coverage under the "continuing veteran policy"; $100,000 in a health reimbursement account for dependent health care after the expiration of the "continued veteran" coverage; $103,560 in a 401(k) plan; and a widow/children's death benefit that pays $9,000 per month for the first 48 months, then $3,600 per month until the child is 19 years old (or 23 years old if in college).

 

[salsadancer7]

Well, that being said; you are more of a MAN than he, Ivrin and the like appear or claim to be and I do congratulate you. It takes a real man to admit he has/had a problem, but more of a man to do something about it and to maintain it! Good job sir!

Thanks...but truth be told....the ONLY thing that really help was just to move....which ALSO ment moving away from my REAL family. I have not live within a short car drive of my family for almost 18 years now.