I know this has little to nothing to do with GSOM, but I think that when something like this happens in the sports world, we can all sympathize.  As I am sure everybody knows, the world lost a brilliant young football player, and, contrary to popular belief, lost a great young man, who was determined to succeed, not only in football, but in life.  I got a pretty decent insight into who Sean was as a player, and as a person in a most unexpected way.  When I was a Freshman, one of the guys in my fraternity, a junior, remarked to me one night that he knew Sean really well.  Actaully, he was the fullback who blokced for Sean at (I think) Gulliver High School in Miami.  At this time both him and the whole U of Miami team was getting villianized as thugs by the national media (to be fair, Sean has been in trouble with the law, throughout his Redskins career).  My buddy painted a totally different picture of Sean.  John is a chubby, quiet, shaggy haired Cuban guy, the seeming polar opposite to the  "outlaw/thug" image that the media painted of him.  They were extremely close friends, who hung out whenever they could (Sean actually came and hung out with us in New Orleans once), and John told me as someone who wasn't changed at all by fame.  Sean described him, as someone totally devoted to the circle of people close to him, who John said he would do anything for.  In a way his generosity and devotion to his friends came back to hurt him in some instances, because he would do anything to protect those he loved, even if that meant fighting for them.  He also told me that once Sean's court case finally got resolved, that he said that he was going to now devote all of his time to his girlfriend, his daughter, and the rest of his family and becoming the best football player he could.

I just wanted to post this because I feel like I got that chance to hear about the personal side of this guy in ways I otherwise would not have.  I think it is easy for people to right off circumstances such as Sean or Darrent Williams' as just "what happens to people who are/ behave like thugs" and with Sean (and probably Darrent) that is totally untrue.  He was a guy who touched all of those around him, and it is a tragic loss for not only those who knew and loved him, it is a tragedy for those who didn't know him (like me), those who loved watching him doing what he loved to do, and for all the future sports fans who will never get to see him use his unbelievable physical talents on the field which God meant for him to play on.
Rest in Peace Sean Taylor.
I Hate This Senseless Violence, Dan