Here's Sean Taylor's Past, Relevant Or No

Michael Wilbon appears to have backed down from some of his ridiculous, offensive chat comments yesterday, but the fact remains: The way many media outlets dealt with the death of Sean Taylor yesterday was questionable, to say the least.

That is to say: When his death appears — for now, anyway — to have nothing to do with any of his off-field troubles, why does everyone feel compelled to keep bringing them up, as if this was somehow an inevitable result?

Why, when a man is on what turns out to be his death-bed, is it necessary to highlight negativities in his life? Without knowing all of the facts surrounding his death, mentioning those moments of indiscretion in an effort to cast a shadow on a dying man's character is completely without class.

Perhaps it will turn out that Taylor's off-field troubles led to this ... but it's unlikely, and there's certainly no evidence to suggest that so far. Other than the fact that he kept a machete next to his bed, that is. When one dies at 24, we suppose it's difficult to find items to fill up an obit, whether they're relevant to the situation at night. Yet another layer to the whole tragedy.

Media To Sean Taylor: You Had It Coming [The Naughty American] Dying Young, Black [Washington Post]