The Seattle Media, Sean Taylor and the Afterlife
When I first heard the Redskins suggest that Sean Taylor was affecting the flight path of field goals and punts, or that their 21-point margin against the Cowboys was something more than a coincidence, my immediate reaction was: 'Wow, I'm definitely going to ignore this. Whoa, look at that mohawk!'
There's no particular reason to argue with people who believe dead players can change future NFL outcomes: maybe that belief is in concert with their worldview, or demonstrates to them the power of faith, or just makes them feel better. That's fine, and those of us who don't believe will never convince them otherwise. It all turns into name-calling, as when George Will addressed Mike Huckabee's suggestion that God swayed the vote in Iowa:
God so loves Huckabee's politics that He worked a Midwest miracle on his behalf? Should someone so delusional control nuclear weapons?
So I was hoping the media would ignore this particular football story line, that Redskins players and fans could believe or not believe in peace, and that all would remain calm. Well, that didn't happen.
For one thing, my own paper ran a story on ghosts and sports and the paranormal. More to the point, two Seattle-area columnists addressed this issue in ways that many of my e-mailers objected to. First came John McGrath in the Tacoma News Tribune:
The solemn dignity of the Missing Man tribute has devolved into a maudlin circus that's turned Taylor from a tragic figure into the patron saint of an improbable Super Bowl contender.....
"Our guys, we didn't think it was by accident that we won by 21," Gibbs said. "I'll put it that way."
And I'll put it this way: It was a coincidence - a chain of events exclusive to a football game in Landover, Md., which had nothing to do with a fatal gunshot in Miami a month earlier - that enabled the Redskins to win by 21 points.
Then came Ted Miller in the Post-Intelligencer on gameday:
There is a point when paying tribute starts to feel like a marketing campaign, just as repeatedly superimposing spiritual matters on the final score of a football game should more inspire rolled eyes than hosannas. Insisting last weekend there was spiritual freight in the Redskins beating Dallas by 21 -- "Wowza! Taylor's jersey number was 21!" said coach Joe Gibbs and a handful of players -- floats only in a very shallow intellectual pool....
America may force a black hat onto the Seahawks on Saturday, but know that if Taylor is paying attention, and the afterlife includes some sort of evolving perspective, his sole rooting interest will be for the health and welfare of everyone watching as well as playing.
And he'd probably prefer the Redskins find a new mascot.
Strong words, nicely balanced by the TV media, with ESPN cueing the soft music and slow pans for its pre-game piece on "21 and Belief," and the NBC crew talking during the game about Sean Taylor looking down from heaven. Meanwhile, some bloggers suggested that the above columnizing was incredibly insensitive stuff, containing thoughts that should never ever be written. So fine, since everyone else is doing it, I'll say what I think:
The suggestions that Sean Taylor himself was altering football games from some hereafter were, if nothing else, incredibly insulting to the memory of Sean Taylor. This theory implies that Sean Taylor was granted some sort of power to influence real events on earth, and that he then decided to use at least a fraction of that power to alter several special-teams plays in an American tackle football game. It further suggests that--since there's no way the Skins win four straight without Todd Collins--Sean Taylor was in some way complicit in Jason Campbell's injury. Worst of all, it would seem to suggest that dead people have the power to prevent disease, or murder, or death, and that for some reason they fail to do so.
But, of course, if the Redskins actually believed that Taylor was out there with them--which many did--then that belief by itself might have changed their play, meaning that the idea of Sean Taylor actually did influence the outcome of several games, if not the flight path of field goals.
But obviously you either saw all that as self-evident 10 minutes ago, or you now think I'm a tasteless callous non-believer, so like I said, there's really no point. Coming up later today: how many place kickers can dance on the head of a pin?
(The above image is from Seattlest's game-day blog.)
By Dan Steinberg |
January 7, 2008; 10:36 AM ET
| Category:
Redskins
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Posted by: Unsilent Majority | January 7, 2008 11:12 AM
The 21-point loss to the Hawks is a sign from him telling us to get over ourselves, right?
Posted by: Chris | January 7, 2008 11:19 AM
Hard to see how ANY part of those columns isn't right on.
It's OK to remember a friend who's passed.
It's OK to dedicate your effort for the rest of the season to him.
It's presumptuous IN THE EXTREME to suggest that the SCORE OF THE GAME is some kind of cosmic tribute to the deceased teammate's UNIFORM NUMBER, or that a deceased teammate is somehow directing the bounce of the ball from heaven. Whoa, I'm glad he didn't wear 25 -- that would have been a hard margin to make.
Are those comments by the columnists harsh? Sure. Has the reaction of the Washington media to ST's passing been WAY, WAY, OVERBOARD (that's you, Mike Wise, who told us that the Skins were now the Nation's Team, and you, Maske, who's telling us that Gibbs is NFL Coach of the Year)? You betcha.
You know what I think? I don't think that the Almighty cares who wins a football game.
Posted by: TheManUpstairs | January 7, 2008 11:59 AM
You shoulda read what My Brain Says Rage said about the Sean Taylor thing.
http://mybrainsaysrage.blogspot.com/2008/01/washington-redskins-gods-team-and.html
Posted by: Chimpanzee Rage | January 7, 2008 12:39 PM
I think if you're as wrapped up in it as the Redskins players are, looking for any sign of meaning in a stupidly pointless and tragic death, you can be excused certain idiocies. I have more of a problem with the media investing any significance in them (especially NBC's commentators) than I do with the Redskins trying to make sense of what befell Taylor and their team.
I am 100 percent certain that any God worth believing in does not care about the outcome of football games.
Posted by: Lindemann | January 7, 2008 12:41 PM
Excellent post, Big Stein. I love Jesus enough to attend church on a fairly regular basis, but I cringed when I heard Collinsworth reference Taylor "watching from the heavens."
Posted by: Bill Fitzgerald | January 7, 2008 12:50 PM
McGrath's column goes well beyond what's excerpted here. Saying the Redskins are "exploiting the dead" and turning their fallen teammate into a "lucky charm" is not only incredibly callous, but inaccurate as well.
Mocking those in mourning (i.e. the entire Redskins franchise) shouldn't be accepted, and I'm surprised this hasn't been more of a story. Not that I believe the Ghost of 21 is affecting outcomes or anything, I just think it's ridiculous for someone to mock people for the way in which they choose to grieve.
Posted by: Jamie Mottram | January 7, 2008 2:04 PM
"And he'd probably prefer the Redskins find a new mascot."
zing! game, set, match to Ted Miller.
also, Jamie M., do you really think that conflating a 21-point victory with divine intervention is a way of "choosing to grieve?" i wouldn't say that the Redskins were "exploiting" Taylor (after all, that's what the media is for), but they were definitely turning him into a lucky charm - seeing his jersey in the tea leaves and hoping that the invocation of his name would help secure victory. too bad he couldn't have intervened to give Todd Collins some extra arm strength.
Posted by: jamie | January 7, 2008 2:16 PM
I believe that Joe Gibbs DID say that his guys thought the 21-point margin over the Cowboys wasn't a coincidence. I think that's kind of embarrassing. Does Joe REALLY, REALLY, think that the heavenly host intervened in the RESULT of a football game? Because that's what he said.
Posted by: TheManUpstairs | January 7, 2008 2:47 PM
"Of course I care about football games and their outcomes. Yes, I love the Redskins. You have a problem with that? If so, I have a lightning bolt for you."
Posted by: tafka | January 7, 2008 3:52 PM
If the Almighty really cares about the Skins, then that explains why they've been wandering in the wilderness for so many years.
I think that if you got Joe Gibbs coming out of his Bible study class, and asked him, "Joe, isn't it right that man should not presume to know the will of God?", he might answer "Yes." Just a guess.
Posted by: TheManUpstairs | January 7, 2008 4:26 PM
I think that Steins and the Seattle media have really missed the whole point on this subject. It isn't about whether or not ST is involved from the beyond. I think whether you believe that or not it's always best to allow the team to continue on their path. The wrong party in this issue is definitely the members of the media that are telling us they don't believe in this nonsense? Who cares? I would venture to say that most people don't believe in it, but the Skins are more than welcome to play in ST's honor and see signs wherever they look. It really takes a pretty callous person to tell them they're wrong. What can possibly be gained from that point? Is this the same person that tells the devout that they there is no all-mighty?
And it's true that the Seattle guys didn't just miss the boat, but fell off the dock in the process. I don't think any Skins fans really feel that ST was being exploited and I'm sure that our fan base more than most would be the first to point it out if we thought that was the case.
I lived in the Pacific Northwest for a period of time and they showed their colors of not being a particularly savy sports area this past week.
Posted by: Cornelius | January 7, 2008 7:06 PM
If they wanted to list Taylor on the depth chart, fine.
They should have started with 10 men on defense again.
Funny how all the "looking down from heaven" stuff started when the skins took the lead and stopped when they lost it.
Did a dead seahawks player cause the missed field goal? Or was Taylor just not paying attention for that snap?
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McGrath's gripe about the depth chart is pretty ridiculous. How is that negative affecting anyone, especially the memory of Sean Taylor. If this is all really a maudlin circus somebody should probably tell Sean's father.