Die Hard Sports Fan

Sadly, today is the one-year anniversary of the death of No. 21. The Washington Redskins will be hosting a tribute to the late Sean Taylor, where he will be inducted into the Redskins’ Ring of Fame, prior to the game against the New York Football Giants on Sunday. Taylor will be the 43rd member inducted into the Ring of Fame. The pre-game ceremony will begin at 12:30 p.m., and it will broadcast live on Redskins.com if you would like to watch it. The ceremony will feature a tribute and messages from former teammates, as well as comments from Taylor’s family and the presentation of commemorative plaques to members of Taylor’s family after his memorial is added to the stadium wall.

Redskins Owner Daniel Snyder said,”It’s appropriate that Sean joins our Ring of Fame after a stellar career cut short far too soon. His life touched so many of us in such deep and lasting ways. His presence is all around us, in our organization and among our fans.”

I know that the Redskins are the enemy, but travesties like this should never happen to anyone. Taylor was an innocent man who was shot in his own home. After Sean’s death in 2007, the ‘Skins rallied around each other and went on a great run before losing to the Seahawks up in Seattle during Wild Card Weekend. The Giants may face an inspired Redskins team on Sunday. Back in 2005, I remember it being the Giants who were inspired as they shut out the Redskins 36-0 after the passing of the late Wellington Mara. We are all aware of how emotion can play into football games so Big Blue will need to overcome this challenge on Sunday.

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Written by: SkinsLovaLinds, our newest Die Hard Redskins Fan blogger

As mentioned in my last post, the last time the Skins played in Dallas prior to our glorious win last week 28-26, I was at the game with 14 of my friends.  It was a very tough loss for us, coming down to the last two minutes…but I lived for every moment! After the game was over and we were walking out of the stadium, we were dealing with all sorts of heckling a smack talk from all the Cowboy fans.  On the way in… a few comments here and there. But I mean to tell you, after the game was over and we took the loss, these fans went from decent to RUDE! But what was the one thing I reiterated over and over AND OVER again to these fans when they were running their mouths? “That’s alright…we’ll take the loss because Sean Taylor will see you AND T.O. at Fedex in about a month.”

That was November 18th.  A little over a week later, the Redskins nation along with the rest of the world were stunned and saddened after learning our beloved Sean was shot in his home and a day later, passed away.  Never in my life had I imagined a sports figure would affect my world so much…but I was literally brought to tears when I heard the news. And when I awoke the next day to learn he had not made it through the night, I was overcome with grief.  So I did what any true fan would do, made arrangements with my fellow fans and took a trip to Fedex field to pay my respects.

But I’m not writing today to relive those bitter moments from last year.  I am simply making reference to the event because I am a firm believer that the tragedy has given the Redskins more of a purpose this season.  They went on to win four games last December to push Washington into the playoffs after being blown off by most teams and analysts as a team in mourning.  Even going into this season, we were expected to have a season to “restructure” after hiring all new coaches and were overlooked completely in the preseason power rankings.  Analysts considered themselves kind by projecting us to go 9-7, some even 8-6, but that we would remain at the bottom of the division and were no comparison to the Cowboys, Eagles and Giants.

Gary Fitzgerald of Redskins.com quotes London Fletcher as saying:

In wins you can overlook a lot of mistakes that were made that could cost you down the road and we had our fair share of mistakes as good as we played on Sunday… maybe people underestimated our resolve and that we were battle-tested from what we went through last year.

Battle-tested, something to prove, with a vengeance…however you’d like to put it, the Redskins have emerged this season and will continue to do so as long as they keep themselves grounded and focused.  Labeled the underdogs up until this week, we have finally broken into the ESPN power rankings top 10.  We’re sitting pretty at number 6, with the Cowgirls at number 3 and the Eagles at number 9.  A win in Philly this week could set the NFC East for a whirlwind.  If Jason Campbell can read the Eagles defense the way he read the Cowboys, there is no reason the Redskins shouldn’t be able to produce.  And in regard to our defense, in the words of Freddie Smoot, “They have their 12th man…we have ours.”

WE MISS YOU SEAN!

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