The Washington Football Team's day of tribute to Sean Taylor should have been perfect. It should have been a well-coordinated effort that reflected months of planning, because Taylor's family deserved nothing less. It turned out to be anything but.
The day included a street re-dedication, an on-field tribute and a halftime ceremony — all of which showed inexcusable signs of shoddy preparation.
This was all to be assumed going in, of course, because the team didn't give fans even more than three days' notice, which led to intense backlash from those who would have loved to attend to pay respects to Taylor one last time, resulting in a written apology from team president Jason Wright.
"I think there were people that probably felt it wasn't a good idea, but they didn't say nothing," Brian Mitchell said Monday on 106.7 The Fan. "They just went along with it because, as I stated before, the timing of this — no matter how positive you were thinking or not — it never ever was gonna be taken like, 'Oh, that was the plan all the while.' People are automatically gonna assume the other way, that this was done to try to shield other stuff."
"The fact that you have driven this organization to such a low that the assumption is a nefarious act, rather than a celebration, you've already broken it," JP Finlay replied. "Like it's already broken."
It wasn't long on Sunday before the first signs of the organization's hasty preparation began to crop up.
Jackson Mahomes, the younger brother of Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, came under social media fire on Sunday for making a TikTok video of himself dancing atop Sean Taylor's No. 21, which was painted on the field beneath his feet.
The younger Mahomes has since deleted the video and apologized, saying, "I want to sincerely apologize for accidentally being on the Sean Taylor #21 at FedEx Field. We were directed to stand in that area and I meant absolutely no disrespect to him or his family."
It's worth reiterating the point that he was directed to stand there, because that's the truth. The immediate area around where Taylor's number was painted on the field was clearly roped off, presumably so people wouldn't stand there, and yet they were instructed to stand there by Washington game day personnel.
"He's telling the truth. It's where he was told to stand," JP Finlay confirmed on Twitter. "That's even worse."
And that's not even the start of the disrespect.
Someone thought it a good idea to position porta-potties behind the street sign demarking 'Sean Taylor Road,' the road leading up to the stadium that was re-dedicated to Taylor before the game on Sunday. As a result, Taylor's family was positioned for a photo opp in front of containers of human excrement, an idea that reeks of last-minute planning. Had someone involved in the planning process bothered to visit FedEx Field prior to game day, perhaps they would have spotted this for the red flag that it was.
But that type of meticulous coordination is difficult when a plan is thrown together at the last minute.
When asked for his opinion on the day's festivities, 'BMitch & Finlay' producer Jim 'Landfill' Mullins walloped the team for being so ill-prepared.
"The retirement ceremony, it was clearly planned on about two days' notice," Mullins began. "They had the picture taken in front of the porta-potties. They had the number on the side of the field, where they told the Chiefs' friends and relatives to stand on. Like, legitimately, if I didn't know any better, I would say they were trying to disrespect Sean Taylor."
"Because this is exactly the type of thing you would do if you were trying to do that," he continued. "They said, 'Oh yeah yeah, we're gonna rename something in his honor, but we'll make the family stand in front of the porta-potties. We'll let the quarterback who's about to destroy our team, his brother is gonna dance on the guy's number.'
"They do a ceremony at halftime and it's like two minutes long. They clearly, clearly didn't plan this. And if they did plan it, it's actually even worse. Because you sit down, and your idea is that, hey, hey, let's have the man's family stand in front of the toilets! The disgusting toilets that all the drunk morons that go to those games are using constantly!
"Let's have the idiot little brother of the quarterback dance on the guy's number, because we just have to put it at the 21-yard line on the opposing team's side of the field for some reason. If they actually thought this through and said, 'This is the way to go with it,' it's way worse than if they just winged it and it turned out to be a disaster.
"You're either incompetent," he said, "or you're clearly trying to distract from something — you pick which one. But the whole 'we planned this ahead of time,' you're just being dishonest. Stop."
"Strong. And accurate," Finlay said. "If somebody finds anything that Landfill's incorrect about, let me know."
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