Words About Sean Taylor

Craig and I just had a conversation about how freakishly talented Sean Taylor was. Such praise gets heaped upon way too many athletes, but with Taylor, it was justified. Craig and I also talked about Taylor's versatility and we wondered why he didn't play tight end, at least in the red-zone. We also pondered the damage he would have done as a blitzing outside linebacker. Ordinarily, our phone conversation wouldn't warrant mentioning in this space, but something I just read in Bruce Feldman's espn.com chat makes it worthwile.

Feldman, who wrote a book about the University of Miami football program, was more than a little familiar with Taylor. Here's what he had to say about the fallen ex-Hurricane:

"He was as amazing an athlete as I've ever covered. I think he is one of the few people I've ever seen who could've been a star at every position on the defense, except nose tackle. ... Art Kehoe the old UM line coach used to talk about how when Taylor and Kellen Winslow were at UM that they would try to knock each other's head's off on every play at practice and that raised the level of everyone else so high, it was unreal."

Wouldn't you pay to go back in time to watch some of those practice battles between Winslow and Taylor? Probably the two best at their position (on the college level) in the last decade, banging heads everyday and taking the Canes to the next level. It's not hard to see why both Winslow and Taylor were so successful early in their NFL careers, and why former Miami coach Larry Coker was out on the street soon after they left.

In case you forgot how good Taylor was at Miami:

-Brad Spieser (Brad@TwinKilling.com)
11/27/07