WFT YouTube: WFT managed to screw up on Sean again

[NewCliche21]

It was fourteen years ago today that I awoke to the news that Sean would never wake up.  The devastation was not hyperbolic and has transparent scars that provide distance but no true recovery.

 

After totally ****ing up the jersey retirement, they did come out with a video (this year, for some reason) for Sean, I was hoping it would make up for that cluster**** of a porta-potty retirement:
 

It's pretty good except for one thing.  Around the 3:52 mark, Smoot, who I can understand can be misremembering due to grief/anxiety, says that he and Snyder were the last two to talk to Sean.  Before leaving for the Green Bay game.  The two-shoulda-been-four-pick game.  Like Smoot may have misspoke in the moment, but our terrible PR team just allowed them to leave that in there?  They edited that in there?  They couldn't have someone watch the damn video who wasn't involved in making it who would catch that?

 

The laziness and passive disrespect given to Sean under the guise of giving Sean respect is despicable and really pisses me off.  We were having such a good two weeks, why you gotta **** it up like this, WFT?

EDIT:  It's not about Smoot's memory.  I don't know how to clarify that better in the OP.  As the person who is paid to make this video, you just don't include the quote that Smoot had.  It was superfluous to the entire video.  It's poor editing on something they already screwed up on.  It shows a lack of effort and a lack of craftsmanship.  It's just something a professional doesn't mess up on when they care about their quality of work (ironically mentioned about Sean in this video).

I won't apologize for "close enough" not being the right thing in this case.

Edited November 27, 2021 by NewCliche21
Clarification

[CobraCommander]

I'm sorry what am I missing? This doesn't seem like that big of a deal but maybe I don't fully understand.

[hail2skins]

14 minutes ago, Florgon79 said:

I'm sorry what am I missing? This doesn't seem like that big of a deal but maybe I don't fully understand.

I think Smoot meant to say Tampa Bay (last Skins game played while Sean was still alive) instead of Green Bay.

 

Honestly, I'm just about over all this stuff.  Sean was a great player who was tragically murdered. All this stuff they are trying to do now (retiring his number, etc) should've been done 13-14 years ago.  By waiting all this time, the organization just invites the controversy into the motives behind it as well as the questioning about why other players aren't deserving to have their numbers retired as well. And then Jason Wright mumbles something about losing the institutional knowledge when you have transition, etc.  What a lame excuse.

 

Edited November 27, 2021 by hail2skins

[NickyJ]

Meh, I definitely didn't like the jersey retirement ceremonies, but Smoot saying the wrong team name for a game that was 14 years ago doesn't register as disrespected to me. The most die-hard fans would notice it at all, but I wouldn't have. I care about what the team did for the family, not whether an former teammate has 100% perfect memory of a 14 year old game.

Edited November 27, 2021 by NickyJ

[Cooleyfan1993]

Yeah, this is just whining about nothing. Sorry 🤷🏻‍♂️ 

40 minutes ago, hail2skins said:

And then Jason Wright mumbles something about losing the institutional knowledge when you have transition, etc.  What a lame excuse.

 

It isn’t a “lame excuse”. He’s correct. When an organization has transition, that’s what they lose. He’s 100% right. You might not like it, but it’s true. 

[NewCliche21]

Sorry, I'm not being clear.  I'll edit OP, too.

You just don't include the quote that Smoot had.  It was superfluous to the entire video.  It's poor editing on something they already screwed up on.  It shows a lack of effort and a lack of craftsmanship.  It's just something a professional doesn't mess up on.

I won't apologize for "close enough" not being the right thing in this case.

49 minutes ago, hail2skins said:

I think Smoot meant to say Tampa Bay (last Skins game played while Sean was still alive) instead of Green Bay.

 

Honestly, I'm just about over all this stuff.  Sean was a great player who was tragically murdered. All this stuff they are trying to do now (retiring his number, etc) should've been done 13-14 years ago.  By waiting all this time, the organization just invites the controversy into the motives behind it as well as the questioning about why other players aren't deserving to have their numbers retired as well. And then Jason Wright mumbles something about losing the institutional knowledge when you have transition, etc.  What a lame excuse.

 

 

This is my point better articulated.  If you're literally going to pull this **** out of nowhere 14 years later, then you do it perfectly.  You also understand that you're opening yourself up to these other points that really aren't hard to predict the second, third, and fourth order consequences of this action.

You don't knock down the first domino until you've looked at the second, third, and fourth ones.  This is not that hard.

[NewCliche21]

13 minutes ago, Cooleyfan1993 said:

Yeah, this is just whining about nothing. Sorry 🤷🏻‍♂️ 

It isn’t a “lame excuse”. He’s correct. When an organization has transition, that’s what they lose. He’s 100% right. You might not like it, but it’s true. 

 

No.  Just no.  This isn't a hard to research topic.  This comes from a focus group, this comes from fan interactions, this comes from asking very simple questions to people already inside the building.

Wright doesn't have to know who our starting quarterback was in 1995, it doesn't matter.  But to not know that this, and other things, aren't touchy subjects isn't confidence-inspiring.  I still like the guy, but damn, man.  Swinging and whiffing while cowering away is not a good look.

[bakedtater1]

R.I.P Sean Taylor.

[CobraCommander]

8 minutes ago, NewCliche21 said:

 

No.  Just no.  This isn't a hard to research topic.  This comes from a focus group, this comes from fan interactions, this comes from asking very simple questions to people already inside the building.

Wright doesn't have to know who our starting quarterback was in 1995, it doesn't matter.  But to not know that this, and other things, aren't touchy subjects isn't confidence-inspiring.  I still like the guy, but damn, man.  Swinging and whiffing while cowering away is not a good look.

Wouldn't this be Julie Donaldsons mistake though? She's the Senior VP of Media and Content afterall.

[Cooleyfan1993]

14 minutes ago, NewCliche21 said:

 

No.  Just no.  This isn't a hard to research topic.  This comes from a focus group, this comes from fan interactions, this comes from asking very simple questions to people already inside the building.

Wright doesn't have to know who our starting quarterback was in 1995, it doesn't matter.  But to not know that this, and other things, aren't touchy subjects isn't confidence-inspiring.  I still like the guy, but damn, man.  Swinging and whiffing while cowering away is not a good look.

It wasn’t Jason’s mistake. It was dans. Jason was just the one to take the fall for it. He can’t control Dan. 

[jjpomeroy]

Not really nit picking - there’s a long history here of complete sloppiness and mistakes.  Need we be reminded of the tribute to London Fletcher?

 

This wasn’t a live interview - it was recorded so that they could edit it and place it in this tribute, which overall was outstanding, but with basic mistakes like this - they continually display incompetence.

[Cooleyfan1993]

This proves that our fans whine about anything. Good lord. I’m convinced you people will find a way to **** all over a super bowl win. 

[skins island connection]

I saw something on the sports segment of local news, and they briefly spoke of this being the anniversary of Sean's death,  and I think they said that Sean's little brother plays for Rice, and he picked off the hail mary pass at the end to seal the victory for Rice.

It was Louisiana Tech vs Rice, Gabe Taylor is his name.

[FootballZombie]

Yeeeahhhh.... That's a nothing burger.

 

Now if they misspell his name on the memorial...

[SeatCushionGame]

This will probably not be received well, but why is his number retired anyway. He could have been an all time great, but his career was tragically short. Ken Houston had a more impactful career than Sean.  So did Jacoby, Grimm, Riggins, Monk, Clark, Hanburger, C. Taylor, Manley...I could go on and on.  

[hail2skins]

19 minutes ago, SeatCushionGame said:

This will probably not be received well, but why is his number retired anyway. He could have been an all time great, but his career was tragically short. Ken Houston had a more impactful career than Sean.  So did Jacoby, Grimm, Riggins, Monk, Clark, Hanburger, C. Taylor, Manley...I could go on and on.  

Again, if this organization were competent, they would have done like the Eagles did with Jerome Brown, who was an impactful player like Sean but whose life got cut tragically short. Philly retired his number immediately, and if the Skins had done the same with Sean, questions like yours wouldn't have to be asked.

[Koolblue13]

Cool video. Thanks for posting. I would have missed it in one of the other ST21 threads.

Edited November 28, 2021 by Koolblue13

[WilberMarshall]

Till this day, I don't support anything that has to do with Michael Wilbon. 

 

The asinine article he wrote without bothering to know the circumstances surrounding Sean's death still infuriates me. 

 

Wilbon is notorious for arrogantly and loudly saying ignorant drivel... like Stephen A. 

 

[LetThePointsSoar]

Wasn't sure where to post this so I'm bumping this old thread.... Anyone else see the Kobe statue unveiled this week and think, "THAT'S how it's done?!?" 

 

Please, HOG group, fix the damn memorial at some point. Sean's legacy deserves so much better. 

 

Hail. 

 

[hail2skins]

Kobe died in a tragic helicopter accident far too young after he retired.

 

But he was also an all-time Laker great who won championships.

 

Sean had the potential to be an all-time great. He died tragically far too young.

 

That's the difference. They could've done better than the crap they installed at FedEx....retiring his number far earlier and moving the club level display down to the lower level probably would've sufficed.

 

But Sean, IMO, is not deserving of a Kobe-like statue. Sorry if that's an unpopular opinion.

[Always A Commander Never A Captain]

There's no way Dan Snyder was paying real statue money for anything. I don't think Sean and Kobe are all that comparable.

 

There have only been 2 players under Dan Snyder who had enough talent and were developing to be the best in the league. Sean Taylor and Trent Williams. Dan Snyder pissed off Trent and drove him out of town. Snyder pissed off everyone. Whose to say he wouldn't have pissed off Sean Taylor and drove him out of town too.

 

Lavar Arrington had the talent, but never developed. Maybe in part because Snyder couldn't keep his hands off him and meddled for Lavar to do what he wanted.

 

Part of me wants to say Sean Taylor would have developed into a career comparable to Ed Reed and Troy Polamalu, but part of me knows Dan Snyder would have interfered somehow and ****ed it all up.

[Conn]

Yeah, I also don’t know if it’s unpopular to say but imo we shouldn’t be building statues for modern era players until we win something and they reach legend of the franchise status for it. 

 

Snyder only did the ST “statue” to try and distract from other things. The statue sucking is just a downstream effect of the initial ill-intentioned decision.

 

The locker, etc. was enough.

[RFK Lives]

Spot on Conn but now the group is stuck in an awkward position.

 

Leave the current abomination up.

Take the current abomination down - which will come with a lot of backlash.

Rectify the situation with the a more apropos statue or tribute to replace it. 

Does not have to be along the same lines as Kobe but that mannequin thing has to be fixed.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

There were so many random Sean Taylor events over the years, I've honestly lost track of what's true and what's not true.

 

1. Is his jersey officially retired?

2. Is he in the Ring of Fame?

3. Is the weird erector set statue still up?

 

If 1 and 2 are true, that's probably enough, and they can take the mannequin thing down with little to know backlash.

 

As for a proper statue.....I don't know.  It would seem odd for this ownership group with no connection to him to him with a statue when luminaries like Gibbs and Mitchell don't have one.

 

Maybe if there is a new stadium, they can do multiple statues or something.

[Always A Commander Never A Captain]

7 hours ago, RFK Lives said:

Spot on Conn but now the group is stuck in an awkward position.

 

Leave the current abomination up.

Take the current abomination down - which will come with a lot of backlash.

Rectify the situation with the a more apropos statue or tribute to replace it. 

Does not have to be along the same lines as Kobe but that mannequin thing has to be fixed.

 

Eh, they can just do nothing until the new stadium comes in and then not bring that thing over to the new stadium. It will quietly fade away.

 

Nobody expects big changes while FedEx is there. Everyone knows it was Dan Snyder because he was desperate to milk the memory of Sean Taylor for ticket sales. Redoing the statue, while nice as a tribute to Sean Taylor, still feels somewhat of a scummy move simply from how much Dan Snyder used that as a crutch.