In the wake of Sean Taylor's murder, we constantly heard from the media that Sean Taylor was turning his life around, by "all accounts" even. Somehow the fact that all his people; teammates, former teammates, friends and family had only positive things to say about him was proof of this. My thought to all this was: I'm not buying it. Nobody wants to talk bad about a contemporary or loved one that was just murdered. It's like telling a girl she's fat in her dress to the tenth degree.
The media told us Mr. Williams was spending a lot of quality time with his girlfriend and 18 month old baby. Whoopdy-do. You don't have to be the greatest guy in the world, or even of good character to spend time with your family. It is well he was doing those things, but that is only one part of the story. I have met countless gangsters and/or thugs whom you could have said this about. Family relations DO NOT erase the subculture or even overground cultures they are engaged in.
Was Mr Williams really doing that 180 degree turn? The only answer at this point is, perhaps.
Was he making a great turnaround? Was Mr. Williams founding charity organizations with his millions? Was he going back to college to make something more of himself after he was out of the NFL? I don't know and I'm not going to even google it because I know that the media would have told us so many of times already in their zest to sell his turnaround. Alas, the the highest way they could glorify him was to say he was spending time with his girlfriend and baby.
It's not that I was thinking Mr. Williams had or had not made positive strides to improve himself. But I was not giving into the fallacy of logic that he had some quality family relationships and therefore everything else must be dandy.
Skepticism is important. I was not going to overlook the high rate of felons that have came from the University of Miami and the NFL. I was and am willing to withhold judgment about the circumstances around his murder in lieu of a little thing called proof of wrongdoing.
My skepticism has already been validated by the recent announcement that four suspects were arrested in the Williams murder case. Their ages: 17, 18, 19 and 20. That somehow does not match up with the "demons in his past" argument that has been the popular explanation for his murder. Sure sounds like the 24 year-old had very likely found new people to get in trouble with. Maybe or maybe not; but my best guess is yes!
We can eulogize Mr. Williams good points, but until he is exonerated of any wrongdoing we can stop glorifying him as making such a great turnaround.
By the way, there will be no disclaimer that Sean Williams did not deserve to die. I will not cave to the idiots that think just because you cast any negative light on Sean Williams that you have to prove you are not implying he deserved to die. It's worse than pointing out that you have the freedom of speech when you are in the middle of casting a controversial opinion (By the way I won't remind you of my freedom speech rights either).
The bottom line is we will find out much more about Williams as time goes on. In the interim we can use the Williams murder to discuss how to improve ourselves as a society. But I will not pretend the world has lost a great man, when I just don't know or am not even inclined to believe so.
Murder is a gross thing, no matter who's involved; if we want to seriously talk about how this can be prevented then ok. But spare me the Taylor was this grand guy talk. It makes a mockery of those that do all the right things without this world's glorification.
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