The Prelude, Week 13: Death and the NFL

Matt Ufford is the editor of With Leather and a co-founder of Kissing Suzy Kolber. The Prelude is his sincere examination of the coming NFL weekend.


The last time I wrote about Sean Taylor's death, one comment I received stood out from the rest. It said, in essence, "Not to take away from the tragedy, but it's too bad our military members aren't met with same admiration when one of them dies in Iraq."

The sentence struck me as profound. By all accounts, Taylor was a bright, talented young man who was taking steps to distance himself from his troubled past now that he had a family and job security, only to lose it all unfairly in the prime of his life. That background is one I know well: it describes a number of Marines with whom I served.

Many of them, like Taylor, were unfairly cut down: not just in the physical prime of their lives, but after leaving childish things behind.

Like many people who care about the NFL, I've been trying to make sense of Taylor's death this week. Though I'm not a Redskins fan, his passing affected me more deeply than another untimely, high-profile death of an NFL safety: that of Pat Tillman, who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan while serving as an Army Ranger.

Given my own service, my greater feeling for Taylor baffled me at first. But it's representative of what my commenter lamented: apparently, an impressive highlight reel reaches us -- or at least many of us -- at a deeper level than selfless service.

Maybe the difference between my sorrow about Sean Taylor's death and Pat Tillman's is strictly visual: it's nice that Tillman graduated summa cum laude in three and a half years, and that he twice turned down rich contracts (first to stay with the Cardinals, then to join the Army) ... but what really resonated with me was Taylor crushing Brian Moorman on a fake punt at the Pro Bowl.

I can't help but feel this way. How is this possible? Simple: I remember Sean Taylor moving on the field, chasing down ball carriers and laying out to clobber opponents. Pat Tillman I remember as a photo still: a beret, an American flag, that granite jaw. It's more meaningful, but it's static.

And that is why our fallen veterans in Iraq and Afghanistan aren't honored in the media the way that Sean Taylor or Reggie White or Darrent Williams or any other deceased NFL player is. When an NFL player dies, his career is something familiar, a shared experience that we can remember as we re-watch the highlights, now set in softer focus.

Meanwhile, our servicemen and women are represented in photos, remembered as serious-faced young Americans in dress uniform in front of the flag. They don't get highlight reels. We don't track the number of Silver Stars won by our fantasy battalions.

And we wouldn't want to. The life of a soldier is not one of publicity and glory -- it's about quiet integrity, of serving one's country in obscurity because it feels like the right thing to do. Let our sports stars get the fond tributes with their faces on every televised highlight. True warriors are laid to rest draped in the flag in front of which they once posed. That's an honor better than any touchdown.

Week 13

With playoff races heating up -- or, in the NFC's case, mired in mediocrity -- I'll try to move this column in a lighter direction. As always, some games are excluded from The Prelude as a direct insult to fans of the ignored teams.

Early Sunday

Bills (5-6) at Redskins (5-6) -- Any non-Bills fan with a heart should be rooting for the 'Skins this week. In other words, Eagles fans will still be cheering for the Bills. Well, not so much for the Bills as against the Redskins.

Lions (6-5) at Vikings (5-6) -- Purple Jesus returns to the field this week for Minnesota, and I'm terrified that his knee isn't fully healed. I would hate to see him get a career-ending injury because he was rushed back. Thankfully, it seems the Lions haven't been too intent on tackling people during their three-game skid.

Texans (5-6) at Titans (6-5) -- Remember when the Titans were 6-2 and looked like a playoff team? Me neither.

Seahawks (7-4) at Eagles (5-6) -- Which Eagles team will show up? The one that hung 56 on the Lions and almost beat the Pats? Or the one that mustered just three points against the Giants? I'm desperately hoping it's the latter, because if the Eagles don't blow it, then Mike Holmgren will.

Jaguars (8-3) at Colts (9-2) -- If the Jaguars are ever going to wrest the AFC South away from the Colts before Peyton Manning retires, now would be the time to do it, when the Colts are fighting through a plague of injuries.

Late Sunday

Buccaneers (7-4) at Saints (5-6) -- If the Saints want to get back into the playoffs, this is pretty much a must-win. And if Reggie Bush wants to stop sucking and score some touchdowns for my fantasy team, that'd be nice, too.

Giants (7-4) at Bears (5-6) -- Eli Manning's decision-making versus Rex Grossman's tiny hands... WHO YA GOT? (I've got the over on turnovers.)

Browns (7-4) at Cardinals (5-6) -- If these two teams don't combine for more than 80 pooints, I'll be extremely disappointed. (By the way, did you see the Browns "throwbacks" last week? They have to be the only team in the NFL whose old uniforms are more ornate than their present ones. I must have watched ten minutes of their game before I realized they weren't in their regular unis.)

Sunday Night

Bengals (4-7) at Steelers (8-3) -- It's a shame that this game doesn't have playoff implications for both teams. I hate to see the Bengals waste so much talent. The Browns have fewer offensive weapons and a worse defense than Cincinnati, yet Cleveland is the NFC North team that's in the playoff hunt. The Bengals front office needs to go shopping for a new coach.

Oh, and I'm going to pray for a couple days of sunny weather before the game. If I have to watch another 3-0 game played in a mangrove swamp, I'll... I'll write more angry sentences about Heinz Field! Take that, Pittsburgh!

Monday Night

Patriots (11-0) at Ravens (4-7) -- What a surprise. The Pats on national TV.



1. TV Distribution Maps. CBS gets the single game mash-up, while FOX has a doubleheader (early; late). I can't believe it! The Seahawks will actually be televised in New York City, so I don't have to spend an afternoon in a sports bar. It's like Christmas in ... December.

2. NFL Style Watch. I think it's great that the cast of The Sopranos has branched out to sports broadcasting.

3. The NFL on Thanksgiving is special. The NFL on any other Thursday, on the NFL Network, is irritating. Why did I have to take three hours away from my Thursday night of writing to stand in a bar? Because a matchup of the NFC's two best teams somehow couldn't wait until the weekend, I suppose. You know who could have waited until the weekend? Me.

4. They were also saying "Boo-urns": How about David Carr's obtuseness? Fans disappointed with Carr's performance began chanting "We want Moore!" -- a call for backup QB Matt Moore. After the game Carr said of the chant, "It's not like we were purposely trying to not score points. They were chanting 'More' -- that they wanted more points. And we were trying to give it to them."

5. Stephen Jackson wants more hip-hop music to fire up the Edward Jones Dome. I've seen Rams fans. I know Rams fans. They don't want more hip-hop music in the Edward Jones Dome.

6. Peyton Manning is listed as one of Fred Thompson's presidential campaign supporters. Thompson was a Tennessee senator while Manning was the Volunteers' quarterback, so there may very well be some history there. Plus Thompson's role in Die Hard 2 no doubt inspired Manning's Sprint commercials.

7. Other thoughts from the Packers-Cowboys game: Brett Favre was as awful as he was at his lowest point over the previous two seasons; he did his team a favor by getting hurt ... Aaron Rodgers looked terrific: excellent feel for the pocket, good speed outside of it, sharp passes and good vision ... Why the Cowboys insist in giving Julius Jones as many or more touches than Marion Barber is one of the world's great mysteries.

8. One final, repeated thought from the Packers-Cowboys game: I seriously hate, hate, hate the notion of a regular Thursday night game. I like my football on the weekends and the occasional Monday night.

9. This is kind of self-serving, but I've been looking for a good sports-related web comic (besides FanHouse's terrific Dugout series). If any of you lovely Internet surfers know some good ones, please leave them in the comments.

10. Godspeed, Sean.