Dan Steinberg of WaPo blows up on Colin Cowherd!

[AKM311]

I don't know why people can't just say, even with a troubled past, Sean did what was best for him and his family and made the right moves for a new direction in life.

Credit should be given to him and looked upon as a role model to those kids who live a similar life, that its never to late to turn for the better.

That is the message the media should be making if they want to talk about his past.

I have not listened to ESPN once about the tragedy. I think Comcast has done one hell of a job and actually feel more at peace hearing it from them, because its a part of this great Redskins family we have.

[Storm]

what station in Cowherd on now and how do we get him off?

[CallMeGreen]

...This is pure drivel, meant to do nothing but incite...

...That's media jackal talk...

Colin, ...can launch random, loaded phrases...

...my journalistic hero, [sarcasm, I presume]...

Mr. Steinberg just went up a couple of notches in my book. Way to call out the Coward.

And Dan, you are my journalistic hero. For today at least.

[estrella117]

This pisses me off to hear stuff like this by the ****ing media so they can get good ratings. The only people who really have not lost sight that Sean had past away protecting his loved ones is comcast! Espn are ran by a bunch of chimpanzies anyway look who they have wroking for them! I swear the monday night crew is the worst ever! Espn nfl countdown hardly ever talk aout the skins, were lucky if we get more than 30 seconds of coverage about are games! The only time the skins get national media coverage is when something bad happens. They never talk about the good things the players do for the community or anything of that nature. So as far as I'm concernd the **** that these morons say goes into 1 ear and out the other. I will always remember ST for his passion for the game and hero he was to his family no matter what!

[Clarke County Sports]

This Colan Cowturd guy probably never played sports, and was picked on alot "before he Became an Adult"....:puke:

[Brotherz]

There's just not enough information and certainly nothing that rises to the level of evidence yet for any "journalist" to actually make the statements they are making with any credibility whatsoever. As for those who are just positive "its a hit"; a hit seems to suggest someone who knows how to pull "a hit" off. And quite frankly, this doesn't smell like that.

Does a "hit" make so much noise as they enter the home of the purported "hitee" to wake up the girlfriend and sean out of a sleep at 1:30am after a week ago purportedly leaving a warning of such impending "hit"? I think not.

If this was "hit" presumably it was because Sean did something to someone and Sean certainly would know what he did right? So when the "hitter" left a knife on his pillow a week earlier and ransacked the place, did Sean not know what was going on? Not likely. If this was a targeted thing Sean knew it and unlikely the only thing he keeps to defend himself and his baby is a machete. If he is such a gun wielding thug and he was warned by someone he obviously knew was that angry at him, Sean the thug has protection, dogs and yes, his own gun to defend himself.

If Sean thought a week earlier he was being warned that he was gonna get "hit" does he really go to sleep in that house with his baby and fiancee? Even a thug (maybe especially a thug) doesn't just let him and his family get mowed down like that. How about the EVIDENCE from the police? The "hitter' forced his way into the home one week after leaving the warning knife on the bed? If Sean was such a thug and presumably the "hitter" knew it, wouldnt they fear that Sean might be waiting for them since he was warned by them?

Now, Sean the thug (as the media is clearly portraying him) is such a badass that when the "hitter" makes a bunch of noise in another room to presumably alert the "hitee" to his presence, Sean grabs a machete and. . . LOCKS THE BEDROOM DOOR? Cmon, I know football is different than real life but does anyone who ever saw Sean Taylor (and certainly anyone who thinks he was a gun toating thug) think that he would have done anything other than RUN to protect his family and confront this guy right there in the house? He locks the door? Then after making all the noise that induces Sean to lock the door in the first place, this "hitman" kicks in the bedroom door, presumably shows himself to Sean and proceeds to shoot himIN THE LEG and run? If this was a hitman, he has committed gross malpractice. He has let the "hitee" identify him and presumably missed his head or heart shot miserably and then left him alive with a leg wound in the home as he runs away! Oh, maybe our amazing incompetent hit man was an anatomy teacher or vascular surgeon because he knew Sean was 32 hours away from bleeding to death if his bullet hit him in the femoral artery (after missing completely with the other shot on purpose I suppose?) And the girlfriend? The baby? Our hitman spared these witnesses because? He's compassionate?

Do I think that its impossible that Sean was a target? No. Do I think its possible this was connected to something from his past or even present. Sure I guess. But to make the sweeping conclusions that it was a black on black hit essentially brought on by something Sean was involved in is grossly irresponsible when the EVIDENCE we do have simply dosn't support it . . . YET. You wanna guess? Speculate? Ok. But to simply state it as fact like wilbon, Cowherd, Whitlock and the rest of the mediots just completely erases any journalistic credibility that they ever had.

[Tom10Y]

The best we can do is just ignore Cowheard. All that he wants is publicity and he is getting it by us being upset with him. If no one listens to him, he'll go away.

[jeffskins66]

what station in Cowherd on now and how do we get him off?

Ironically, Cowherd is on the Dan Snyder owned Triple X ESPN Radio. We should make a serious push to Mr. Snyder to get this man off his radio station. I'm sure he'd listen.

[luvthosskins]

The man is dead and nothing anybody says is going to bring him back. Let's just remember the man for his talent and goodness. God Bless Sean Taylor.

[RedskinInExile]

I particularly like one of Dan's points: it may be tempting to speculate, but considering how much we really know, maybe it would be best to wait till some of the facts come out. If it does turn out Sean was targeted because of past actions (indeed, a distinct possibility), then I'll listen to Cowherd, Wilbon, et. al. Until then, let's stop this baseless speculation that seems mainly designed to give otherwise minor media personalities some significant esposure.

[Gracelander]

I can't understand why someone cannot believe that someone could make drastic changes in life in 2 years. Strange example but look at Terrell Owens, you can't tell me that he hasn't changed since last season. I look at him now as a good football player first, last season when he was loud and always in the spotlight doing dumb things I despised him. People can change regardless of the length of time. We only got to see 2 years of Sean's life changing, it's unfortunate we can't see how he would be in 10 years from now, i'm sure it would only be better.

[SteelNeil]

Unfortunately, I was the one to give Dan the bad news about ST:(

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2007/11/colin_cowherd_on_sean_taylor.html#comments

One of the dominant questions sports opinion types have grappled with this week is this: Was Sean Taylor's death a surprise. Famously, Michael Wilbon and Len Shapiro both said no. This struck me as a needlessly provocative and confrontational way to approach the story in its opening days, and frankly, I don't believe that they weren't at all surprised. I mean, really, someone told them that the day after a big Redskins loss in Tampa their best player had been critically shot in his bedroom in an upper-class neighborhood Miami, and they weren't at all taken aback? They weren't at all like, "Whoa!," not even for a few seconds? I knew Sean Taylor's history, and when I got off that plane from Tampa and this Skins fan named Robert came up to me and told me what happened, I was damn sure like, "Whoa!" I know there's violence in Iraq, but if I learned that a high-ranking administration official had secretly traveled to Baghdad and been killed, I'd be like, "Whoa!" at least for a few seconds.

The counter argument goes, if you were told a Redskins player would be shot last weekend, wouldn't your first guess be Sean Taylor? Yeah, I guess. How about this, though: if you were told a Washington Wizards player was going to quit basketball next week, renounce all his material possessions, dress in rags, become a raw-food vegan, join the Peace Corps and move to Tanzania, 100 percent of you would guess it would be Etan Thomas, right? That wouldn't mean the action itself wouldn't be shocking and surprising.

And now people are firing back at the initial round of "not-a-surprise" columns: read, for example, Mike Freeman, who writes "can we all take a breath, remove our CSI badges, and see Taylor as he is: someone who suffered a horrible death? Can we all be human beings for just one second? A second. That's not so much to ask, is it?" Or read David Steele. Or check out this City Paper blog, which quotes Wash Times beat guy John Mitchell calling Shapiro "a racist conniving dog of a skunk."

Fun stuff. Anyhow, not surprisingly, ESPN Radio's Colin Cowherd has been far ahead of the pack in stomach-turning 'baggery. From the beginning, he argued that this could not be a random act, which is fine, but he insisted on doing so in the most obnoxious, self-serving and ruthless manner possible. The audio clips of his Sean Taylor stuff are prominently sprinkled about his page, allowing him hopefully to at least make some coin off of throwing barbs at a dead guy. From yesterday's show:

Serious grown-up talk here. If you can't handle grown-up stuff, then turn the radio to another channel right now, give you about five seconds. We're going to talk about Sean Taylor's death...If you can't deal with that, I have no problem with that at all, none. Right now turn the radio to Oldies 107.8 or another station....All right, now it's just grown-ups, we've gotten the kids out of the room, let's proceed.

If you actually want to have a serious discussion, this has immediately disqualified you. This is pure drivel, meant to do nothing but incite.

Sean Taylor, great player has a history of really really bad judgment,

really

really bad judgment. Cops, assault, spitting, DUI. I'm supposed to believe his judgment got significantly better in two years, from horrible to fantastic? 'But Colin he cleaned up his act.' Well yeah, just because you clean the rug doesn't mean you got everything out. Sometimes you've got stains, stuff so deep it never ever leaves.

Stains? Spitting and a DUI arrest that was thrown out are stains so deep they never leave? T.O. has spit. LenDale White has spit. Chris Samuels claimed that Antonio Smith spit. Charles Barkley spit on a young girl. Roberto Alomar spit at an umpire. Lot of people have stains, I guess. Wouldn't be surprised if any of them die, I guess. Seriously, there is one prior public incident in Sean Taylor's life that causes serious concern in this case, the one involving guns. It sure isn't the fact that he spit on a player or had a DUI charge that was dismissed.

My gut feeling with this story, and we said yesterday, yesterday was not really a day to go out, yesterday was sort of a day, you know, grieving, but we're past the memorial part. It's grown-up time, ask yourself realistic questions....Just because somebody cleans the rugs doesn't mean there aren't stains. No matter what those commercials, OxyClean, tell you on cable TV, some stains you can't get out. And if you have bad judgment for 23 years of your life, even if you clean it up, your judgment doesn't get great over night.

I suppose this is true enough, in general. How it relates to this case, neither I nor Colin Cowherd has any idea, since we have absolutely no idea how Taylor's judgment related to what happened to him. Cowherd is just throwing stuff like that out there to stir passions among his listeners. It's nasty stuff. There is no possible justification for using "stains you can't get out" in what you're claiming is "serious, grown-up talk." That's media jackal talk.

I want to know the truth. I want to know the details. It's not pretty? I don't care, I'm a grown-up. I can handle not pretty. A lot of people can't in the media, a lot of people can't, 'Oh, wah wah wah, sensitivity, he's a great person, wah wah wah.' Hey, I don't care, that's fine, he died, let's get to the truth. We're all about the truth. We always say on this show, we're not always good, we're always honest. Just give me honesty.

Colin, you're a brave soldier for journalistic freedom and investigative verve. All of us innocent souls who chose not to use the phrase "stains you can't get out" in the first few days are, as you said, "sheep...like 95 percent of the media." But you're a grown-up. You can launch random, loaded phrases from the truth-seeking depth of your soul, because you, my journalistic hero, can handle it.

So that was yesterday. And then I'm listening today, and Cowherd quotes Antrel Rolle's remarks and then, I swear, gloats over the fact that his "gut feeling" has been proven correct, that Taylor's death was surely not a random act. It's hard for me even to know how to respond to someone who would publicly gloat over something like this, and my attempted tape recording of the program didn't come out well, but I can tell you that he talked about CIA profiling and diversity and, well, this:

I didn't grow up African American. I grew up middle class. I wanted Stephen A.'s perspective on the story. And during this story I leaned on Stephen A., Michael Wilbon and Jason Whitlock for a perspective I don't have. You walk around ESPN, it's in the halls, on the posters, Diversity, Capital D, big letter. You know why Diversity's really important at ESPN, a big company? Because it gives you more people with unique perspectives. And if you're a growing company, you want to stay fresh, you need to have a 23-year old Hispanic gal or guy tell us what's going on in your community. Asian, white, black, Hispanic, everybody, new voices, young voices, old voices. You walk the halls of ESPN, it's the United Nations. It's great. Canadians, Hispanics, Europeans. They give us a perspective we don't have.

Ok. Awesome. And then he concludes:

No, all the information's not in. But I feel pretty confident that my gut feeling, like any of yours, by the way, is right and was right.

Well, again, congratulations Colin. You, indeed, are the big winner this week. Enjoy your success.

So by Collins estimation that if you were born african american..you must not be middle class?

[MaddogCT]

Coward is a clown. And as it turns out, wrong. But he'll spin it so it will seem like he was right all along.

:logo:

[FootballGuy2677]

I cussed him out with absolutely zero class. He deserved it.:laugh:

[Tastes Like Chicken]

Thanks for that link to his email. I sent this message:

Colin,

Would you please be so kind as to address on your show, that Sean Taylor's being murdered in his home, while defending his family, had nothing to do with "poor judgement"? The man died a hero, and does not deserve for you or anyone to talk about "stains in the rug." You claim that you're not always good, but you're always honest. Well, I can't ask you to be good, but please be honest, and tell the truth as you always claim.

JD

P.S. While you're at it, would you mind mentioning this to your Diversity Council at ESPN when you pass them in the hallway, thanks a bunch.

[darrell1106]

I'm currently overseas but I would help anyone who would like to start a serious campaign for GETTING RID OF COWHERD. Website, literature, articles in the WP, Times, etc. I'm game.

This dude sux and I barely listened to him before. Not another second of him!

[darrell1106]

Thanks for that link to his email. I sent this message:

Colin,

Would you please be so kind as to address on your show, that Sean Taylor's being murdered in his home, while defending his family, had nothing to do with "poor judgement"? The man died a hero, and does not deserve for you or anyone to talk about "stains in the rug." You claim that you're not always good, but you're always honest. Well, I can't ask you to be good, but please be honest, and tell the truth as you always claim.

JD

P.S. While you're at it, would you mind mentioning this to your Diversity Council at ESPN when you pass them in the hallway, thanks a bunch.

Great stuff!

[SkinFanZim]

Sean died protecting his family. Sean is a true amercain hero. If anyone says anything differnt, they need serious help.

Believe what you want, but the true american heroes are the men and women of our armed forces who KNOWINGLY put theirselves in harms way to protect our way of life. Sean Taylor was a victim, not a hero.

[Tastes Like Chicken]

Believe what you want, but the true american heroes are the men and women of our armed forces who KNOWINGLY put theirselves in harms way to protect our way of life. Sean Taylor was a victim, not a hero.

Glad you cleared that up for us.

Soldiers are heroes. A man who is killed while protecting his family is a hero. Why the need to draw a line, bro?

[ALLWORLD]

Believe what you want, but the true american heroes are the men and women of our armed forces who KNOWINGLY put theirselves in harms way to protect our way of life. Sean Taylor was a victim, not a hero.

I'm a soldier deployed overseas. I was on midtour until the 28th of November.

I cried the morning when I woke up and rushed to find he didn't make it.

I cried the days after.

Throughout everyday, I have a pain in my stomach thinking about him and the loss his family has to bare.

Rather I will continue to watch the Skins play or not, who knows. It is almost a nausea type feeling in my gut.

If I could wear my Taylor jersey over my uniform I will.

Sean Taylor is MY HERO.

[waterwagen]

Glad you cleared that up for us.

Soldiers are heroes. A man who is killed while protecting his family is a hero. Why the need to draw a line, bro?

Exactly. :applause:

[waterwagen]

Colin Cowherd got caught at modern media's game - make knee-jerk, speculative decisions about what happened based on popular, usually old thought rather than dig in and figure out the facts (like talking to people who knew Sean). Congratulations Cowherd, you look like a fool.

[footballhenry]

Colin Cowherds' words were simply disgraceful. Its sickening to the stomach to read such vile from someone employed by ESPN. He should be ashamed of his callousness and insensitivity.

[alwaysaskin]

I wonder if Cowturd would be this brave if any of Sean's teammates were in studio with him, he's a piece of garbage like most of the staff at ESPN.

[ECU-ALUM]

I wonder if Cowturd would be this brave if any of Sean's teammates were in studio with him, he's a piece of garbage like most of the staff at ESPN.

Don't bet on it...he would trash Bill Romanowski all over the place but the minute he was in the studio...he was Romanowski's Press Secretary.