touching article from Miami Herald
[h2]SEAN TAYLOR | 1983-2007[/h2][h1]Taylor's charmed life and senseless death[/h1][h2]For lots of boys, pro football is a dream. But for Sean Taylor it was destiny, say those who cut his hair, accompanied him to church, coached him and sawhis ferocious pride and competitiveness.[/h2]
[h5]Posted on Sun, Dec. 02, 2007[/h5]
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[h3]BY AUDRA D.S. BURCH, ERIKA BERAS, SUSAN MILLER DEGNAN AND EVAN S. BENN[/h3][h3]
[email protected][/h3]
CHARLES TRAINOR JR. / MIAMI HERALD STAFF
Venjah Hunte, 20, and Charles Wardlow, 18, make their first court appearance via video in Ft Myers' courtroom after being arrested for the murder/burglary of pro football player Sean Taylor in Miami.
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Constance Dingle stood outside her house less than 48 hours after Sean Taylor's death -- a ringing cordless phone in one hand, a beeping cellphone inthe other -- receiving condolences and fretting about funeral arrangements for her murdered grandson.
''He was a good kid. My grandson opened doors for women, he respected people, he was polite,'' she said, struggling to be heard above theexuberant giggles of neighborhood children at play in her yard. ``He was smart, too.''
This was the somber, exhausted, hollow voice of a grandmother who helped raise Taylor, the Washington ********' All-Pro safety who had spent part of hischildhood at her son's house next door.
Dingle had potty-trained Sean over a weekend. She had sung his favorite
Itsy Bitsy Spider over and over and had taught him to read by sounding outthe letters of street signs around Richmond Heights, a middle-class community of winding streets and pastel houses. Dingle, her son Pedro and Sean had lived ona street -- a Place, really -- with just four houses and within skipping distance of a park.
Dingle's recounting of her memories of Taylor are interrupted by a steady caravan of reporters and camera crews all here to dig out the story of thestar athlete who died violently in his bedroom in an upscale neighborhood a few miles away from his boyhood home.
He was the victim of a random, botched burglary, police say.
On Friday, Miami-Dade police arrested three teenagers and a 20-year-old, saying they shot Taylor, 24, during an armed break-in at his $900,000 home on OldCutler Road in Palmetto Bay. Police said the intruders thought he wouldn't be home. They fired after he came at them with a machete. Attorneys for twosuspects said Saturday that their clients have confessed.
The arrests put an end to the questions about whether Taylor's modest brushes with the law -- including a 2001 fistfight at Florida InternationalUniversity (no charge), a 2004 DUI charge in Virginia (later dropped) and a 2005 confrontation involving guns (pleaded out to a misdemeanor) -- could offersome insight into why he was shot.
Dingle said it has been difficult to watch strangers dissect her grandson's charmed, if complicated, life.
''You know, they keep saying that Sean changed his life after having a baby,'' she said. ``Sean was already living right. He has movedforward since the day he was born.''
Just last week, Dingle cooked Sean's favorite dessert: sweet-potato pie. She never got a chance to give it to him.
``By knowing the Lord and having great faith, I don't ask why, because God does not make mistakes. Maybe He plucked Sean now to help save someoneelse.''
•
A few months after his birth on April Fool's Day in 1983, Sean Michael Maurice Taylor was baptized at Bethel Seventh-day Adventist Church in FloridaCity.
He became a fixture there, going to services with his dad, stepmother and grandmother.
''Sean went to church every Saturday unless he had practice,'' his great-aunt, Merlane Williams, said from her home in Richmond Heights.
He got his first taste of football as a 60-pound 6-year-old on the Homestead Hurricanes. Taylor went on to play for the Florida City Razorbacks, a team thathis dad helped coach.
Glenn ''Lucky'' Smith remembers running footraces with Taylor outside Pine Lake Elementary when they were boys. Smith, who now works for acable company, said the neighborhood kids, even at 8, 9 and 10, expected Taylor to be great.
''We weren't surprised when he made the NFL; it was his destiny,'' Smith said. ``All kids dream of getting out, of making it big-time,but for Sean it was real and everybody knew it.''
Taylor stood out on the football field from his earliest Pop Warner days, said Tommy Sumler, ''Coach Bo'' to kids who play ball in SouthMiami-Dade.
''Him and his father really set a role for the community,'' Sumler said.
•
Pedro ''Pete'' Taylor and Josephine Leon were married in February 1987. Sean was almost 4.
Pete and Sean's biological mom, Donna Junor, battled over custody of Sean until he was about 9. Pete won, according to court records and familysources.
Hurricane Andrew toppled the family home in South Miami-Dade in 1992. Even so, Williams says, a few family photos were saved.
''I have one of him with his cowboy hat on, playing with his choo-choo train,'' Williams said tearfully. ``He was such a goodboy.''
Pete Taylor -- a career Florida City police officer who rose to chief in 2003 -- ran a strict household. Sean Taylor was among eight children, and he was,by all accounts, a respectful, happy kid.
''He loved sweet-potato pie,'' Williams said. ``I had made it for him since he was a little boy. He said mine was the best.''
As he grew older, Taylor nurtured his relationship with his mom. He attended services with her side of the family at Perrine Seventh-day Adventist Church.He went often with his great-grandmother, Aulga Clarke. They sat holding hands.
The last time Clarke saw her great-grandson was the day before Thanksgiving.
''He helped me clean the house. He gave me two hugs and kisses,'' she said. ``He was a very affectionate boy.''
•
Pete Taylor thought his son would have better college prospects if he went to a private high school. Sean transferred during his sophomore year from MiamiKillian Senior High to Gulliver Preparatory School.
At both schools, he charmed his teachers and coaches with his easy ways and football skills.
''Seems like yesterday, he walked into the Killian locker room as a ninth-grader and asked to be on the football team,'' said James Bryant,Taylor's junior varsity coach at Killian. ``He was a natural. I told him then that he'd be big-time some day.''
''You
wanted to hang out with him,'' said Greg Bellamy, who played with Taylor on Gulliver's state championship team in 2000.``You know how players are cocky and stuff? That wasn't his style.''
At Gulliver, Taylor started dating Jackie Garcia, a pretty, popular athlete. She was voted homecoming queen and was named to the All-Dade soccer team fourtimes.
From the start, Taylor's family and friends all approved of the romance.
''Jackie's one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet,'' said Emory Williams, who is Merlane Williams' son and consideredTaylor a brother.
Their relationship blossomed at the University of Miami, where she played varsity soccer. Eighteen months ago, she gave birth to their daughter, Jackie.
''He was a simple man, a private man, and when people say that he was troubled, it's just not true,'' Garcia told CNN on Thursday.
She described Taylor as a ``homebody.''
'He wasn't, like, `I got to be on South Beach,' '' Williams said. ``He loved being at home.''
•
Taylor's rise to greatness at the University of Miami almost didn't happen. Several programs, including George Tech's, courted him during hissenior year at Gulliver, when he set a state record for most touchdowns in a season. He decided to stay close to home.
The 2001 UM team -- coached by Larry Coker and led by current NFL stars Clinton Portis, Jeremy Shockey and Andre Johnson and backed up by rising talentslike Taylor and Kellen Winslow Jr. -- won a national championship, beating Nebraska in the Rose Bowl.
It was during Taylor's UM years that some friends and acquaintances say he first experienced the darker side of stardom.
He was involved in a fight his freshman year at a pickup basketball game at Florida International University. Witnesses told police that Taylor and friendsattacked an FIU basketball player. Taylor was later questioned but not charged.
Selected by the ******** in the first round of the 2004 NFL Draft, Taylor had racked up fines for missed meetings, uniform violations and gameejections.
He was arrested on DUI charges near his town house in Virginia in 2004. A judge dismissed the case.
But the incident that made headlines -- and caused Taylor to clam up around reporters -- was his 2005 altercation over two all-terrain vehicles in WestPerrine.
Taylor and several friends confronted Ryan Lee Hill, who they believed had stolen the ATVs from Taylor. It was claimed that Taylor's friends wavedguns.
Afterward, Taylor retreated to a friend's house a few blocks from Hill's. While Taylor's friends were inside, a car pulled up and someone firedseveral dozen shots at the house and Taylor's SUV. The shooters were never identified or caught.
But police arrested Taylor and charged him with felony aggravated assault with a firearm for the confrontation with Hill. A plea agreement reduced thecharge to a misdemeanor, which was wiped from Taylor's record after he completed probation in April.
•
The ATV incident received considerable media coverage, and Taylor was stung by his portrayal in the press -- irritated that his personal life overshadowedhis career achievements.
******** teammates have said that Taylor had seemed more mature since the birth of his daughter. His former high school running-back coach said the babyhelped Taylor cut ties with the South Florida friends who were negative influences.
''That forced him to get away from those guys,'' said Lee Horn. 'Like, `Hey, I can die. I've got to stop this and change mylifestyle.' ''
Pete Taylor has said he had a sit-down with his son after the ATV incident to persuade him to take a step back. His son listened.
He didn't ratchet down his intensity on the football field. For instance, he was criticized for spitting in the face of an opposing player during the2006 playoffs. Another episode at this past year's Pro Bowl -- he delivered a bone-crushing hit on a punter during the meaningless exhibition game -- alsodrew rebukes.
The clip of that hit has become a popular link on YouTube.
Taylor was considered one of the league's top free safeties and was leading the NFC in interceptions when a knee injury sidelined him three weeksago.
Whenever he wasn't playing, he made every effort to come home. After his younger brother Jamal's Pop Warner team won the 2003 national title, Taylorspent $17,000 to buy personalized, diamond-studded rings for every player and coach on the Palmetto Bay Broncos. Taylor was on the sidelines for thechampionship game at Disney.
''Have you ever seen a Super Bowl ring?'' asked Lon Cowart, the coach who also hosted Taylor's NFL Draft party at his home in Tavernier.``These aren't as big or glamorous, but they're special, and Sean made that possible.''
After Hurricane Katrina, Taylor returned home. He canvassed the West Perrine community offering help -- and ended up on top of Solomon Graves' house,helping to fix his roof.
''If you didn't know he was a *******, you'd just think he was a normal guy,'' Graves said. ``He never had his nose stuck in the airor acted like he had more money than everyone around here.''
During the football season, Taylor would usually stay at his town house in Ashburn, Va. But the injured knee prevented him from playing. Some say Taylormade an unannounced return to Palmetto Bay last weekend to get a second opinion on the knee; others believe he was home to keep Jackie and their daughter safeafter a recent break-in.
Taylor seemed to have found a balance between his on-field duties and off-field responsibilities.
''You put fear in people's hearts, and that's what he did,'' said Arizona Cardinals running back Edgerrin James, a former UMstar.
''Off the field, he kept it real low-key,'' James said. ``It was silly little things that people blew up and made them into this and that.But he was never a bad person.''
Friday's arrests might bring some comfort to his family, but it won't bring Taylor back to those who remember him with affection, like JosephMaxwell, one of his childhood barbers. Taylor used to sit in Maxwell's chair at his Richmond Heights shop every weekend. His request didn't change:clean-cut on the sides, a little longer on top -- a basic fade.
By the end of high school, Taylor stopped patronizing Maxwell's shop, but he never stopped coming by, even after his career took off.
''That's the thing about Sean,'' Maxwell said, ``He never forgot home. Never forgot his roots.''
Audio | Sean Taylor's father speaks on Friday
