Via extremeskins.com: DC-bred, LA-based metal band Vyrus unveils its musical homage to the murdered Redskin, “Forever 21.”

It’s a power ballad that’s sort of, umm, “Going to California” meets “Horse With No Name.” Yeah, I’ll stick with that.

As quickie dirges go, “Forever 21″ is no “Ohio.” But, what is?

In a world where there are so many legitimate reasons to slam Redskins owner Dan Snyder, why are all the commentators groping for a weak one? Of course, I’m referring to the outcry over how he has handled hiring a replacement for Team God Joe Gibbs. I have trouble finding any columnist, any fan, who’ll stand up and defend the owner for doing what he’s doing.

And that’s a damn thorough job of interviewing candidates for an important position. For weeks, several promising head coach candidates have been rotating in and out of Redskins Park. I guess former defensive guru Gregg Williams had four interviews, former Giants head coach Jim Fassel has had several, Ron Meeks is at a similar frequency, and there are others too.

Can someone please tell me what’s wrong with working your ass off in the interview process, hashing it out with every decent candidate possible? According to the Washington Post, the ‘Skins appear interested in extending the search beyond the Feb. 3 Super Bowl. There are probably plenty of assholes out there who have a problem with that. Oh, they’re not going to be ready for the draft, or somesuch.

There are probably some nincompoops, too, who feel that the Skins’ recent moves to lock up a D coordinator and and O coordinator were stupid moves, considering that, hey, they haven’t even hired a head coach yet. Well, here’s a preemptive strike against any such moron: Snyder knows that head coaches are cronyists: They’ll hire who they know, no matter how good or bad they are. Coaches just want their buddies sitting alongside them in the film room as they all chew tobacco.

It’s about time that someone put the merit back in the hiring process. Thank you, Dan Snyder. (And that’s sincere.)

And one more thought: Over the weekend, the Post’s Mike Wise advanced the laughable argument that Williams should have been retained or treated better because he was the team’s strongest link to the Sean Taylor tragedy. Here’s what Wise wrote:

For everyone other than Snyder, this job search hasn’t been about Gibbs at all. It’s been about Taylor and how the team and coaches banded together to reach the playoffs without him. The healing was still progressing when Gibbs suddenly left. Williams was seen as the one link that could keep the chain of emotional recovery together.

Yes, the Taylor episode was and is an emotional hell. But I’m sorry: The search for a head coach is about moving on. If Williams was the best candidate to coach the Redskins for the next decade or so, then he should’ve been picked. If not, not.

I love the way the punditry says Williams got sandbagged, mistreated, etc., etc. Wise finds it outrageous that no one from the Redskins called Williams for more than a week after his last interview. Jeez, what a white-collar felony! Wake up–the guy got four bites at the apple. Don’t you think there’s a chance he said some stupid stuff in those sessions?

The gentleman behind the D.C. Sports Bog, tipped me off to another Sean Taylor item for purchase. The Skins are now getting in on the act. For $3.99 you can purchase the rally towel the team handed out before the Bills game. The money goes to the Taylor memorial fund. Also up for purchase, of course, is the Sean Taylor memorial ribbon for your car with proceeds ($4.99 per) going to the fund.

At least those items are relatively cheap and go to a worthy charity. One rally towel is currently going for $29 on Ebay.

The D.C. Sports Bog is all over the people hawking Sean Taylor death gear including the funeral program for $102.50 on Ebay. We like the “Limited Edition Sean Taylor Pop Art” poster currently bidding at $14.50.

The always reliable Prince of Petworth captures some interesting fliers posted on the Saloon’s windows.

In Sunday’s Marc Fisher column, the Post journalist discovers that Starbucks doesn’t like the homeless and hates publicity about its hating the homeless. I know it’s two days old. But if you haven’t read the column, you should.

Unusual guests at Sean Taylor’s funeral included Jesse Jackson and…O.J. From the Washington Post’s reporting today:

“Also attending was O.J. Simpson, the Hall of Fame running back who faces trial in Las Vegas on charges of armed robbery and kidnapping after a September incident involving two sports memorabilia dealers. Simpson told other attendees that he had encouraged his own alma mater, the University of Southern California, to recruit Taylor.”

Offer up jokes in the comments section.

A huge huddle of Redskins fans have been taking out their grief over Sean Taylor’s death on Len Shapiro for his Tuesday washingtonpost.com column headlined, “Taylor’s Death Is Tragic but Not Surprising.” Shapiro says he’s gotten hundreds of emails since the article appeared.

“This is the most I’ve gotten for anything since I started doing the column,” Shapiro says. “Every time I click over, there are three or four new ones, many of them starting with ‘Mr. Shapiro, you heartless, gutless prick.’”

The outcry, which has a hater/non-hater ratio of about 100-to-1, has caused Shapiro some second thoughts.

“The headline [which Shapiro didn't write] was a little tough, and a lot of the readers didn’t get past the headline,” he says. “And if I had it to do over, I probably wouldn’t have been quite as cynical about Taylor’s transformation. I probably shouldn’t have used the words ’so-called.’”

But he stands by the intent of the piece, which suggested that those familiar with Taylor’s past could almost be desensitized to news of his murder.

“A lot of the people were so emotionally involved, I’m not sure the message got through,” he says. “Maybe I said it inelegantly, and I’ll take full responsibility for that. But, look, these things are happening to African-American male athletes, and we’ve got to do something about it.”

“We don’t know the answers yet, and til we do we can’t make any conclusions,” Shapiro continues, “but I think it would be irresponsible and just wrong not to mention that this guy came to Washington and had some serious issues. But did he deserve it? Come on! Nobody deserved this.”

Shapiro has also taken a beating on WOL-AM’s sportstalk show, The Sports Groove. John Mitchell, a sportswriter for the Washington Times, went on the air Tuesday night and quickly nailed Shapiro with a one-two punch, calling him both a “racist, conniving skunk” and a “racist, conniving dog of a skunk.”

Last night, the barrage against Shapiro continued, as Sports Groove host Mark Gray boasted that he had invited the writer on the show to rebut the haters, of which he is a proud ringleader.

Shapiro tells me he was unaware of the invite, but he’ll be glad to discuss the situation with Gray.

“He hasn’t called me to appear on the show,” Shapiro says. “If he does I’ll go on.”

Grab some popcorn and pull up a chair. That’s going to be great radio.

Marc Fisher has a strong column–perhaps the best yet on Sean Taylor. The writer sees the differences and similarities between Taylor and the many who died at or around 2921 Knox Place SE. There have been 10 murders at Knox Place in recent years. Fisher spends time at Redskins Park and on Knox Place for this well reported piece.

Mike Wise delves a bit too poetically into the grieving process going on at Redskins Park. But he does stop long enough to note what a lot of people are perhaps afraid to say out loud:”It’s also fair to wonder if the grown men breaking down in tears beside a memorial of Taylor at the Redskins’ training facility grieve as much for their own family members as for a player they never met or knew.” But then quickly drops the point: “They are all points worth arguing and debating. But the truth is, everyone deals with death and loss in his or her own space and time. And no matter how one feels about such personal and delicate matters, it would be unfair to dismiss the authenticity of the recovery process in Ashburn. This is literally, as Joe Gibbs said, ‘an hour-to-hour thing.’”

Boswell has some mighty praise for Redskins owner Daniel Snyder and even more for Joe Gibbs.

Courtland Milloy sees a lot of murder cases just like Sean Taylor’s. He leads with this: “You hear about killings all the time, more than a few of the victims named Sean, black youngsters in their 20s, full of promise. But you don’t feel the pain unless it’s your Sean.”

Wilbon continues to argue that he was not surprised by Taylor’s death. He may get a lot of hate from Skins fans. But it’s one of the better pieces on the star safety. He writes: “I’m told that Taylor was told to go north, to forget about Miami. I can understand why he would want to have a spot in or near his home town, but I sure wish he hadn’t. The issue of separating yourself from a harmful environment is a recurring theme in the life of black men. It has nothing to do with football, or Sean Taylor or even sports. To frame it as a sports issue is as insulting as it is naive. Most of us, perhaps even the great majority of us who grew up in big urban communities, have to make a decision at some point to hang out or get out.”

Len Shapiro has been taking a beating for a washingtonpost.com column expressing his lack of shock at Sean Taylor’s violent demise.

“[C]ould anyone honestly say they never saw this coming? You’d have to be blind not to consider Taylor’s checkered past,” Shapiro wrote, before going over what the writer saw as some of the decedent’s bad acting, which included “blowing off” an NFL rookie behavioral symposium in 2004, and “disrespecting Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs by not showing up for mandatory offseason workouts and never calling to explain why.”

Shapiro didn’t get around to explaining why Taylor’s blowing off and disrespecting should be seen as precursors to being murdered in his home. Readers have surfed to the newspaper’s online comments section by the hundreds to unload on the veteran sportswriter, who has been at the Post since 1969. A poster going by “concernedaboutdc” wrote: “May God assault your soul Mr. Shapiro as aggressively and violently as you have the family and friends of Mr. Taylor on the day of his demise. You are a horrible pug of a man. All of your human parts are dead. May God bring an end to the rest of you.”

Not all of Shapiro’s assailants hid behind screen names. Last night, John Mitchell, a sportswriter for the Washington Times, ripped Shapiro a new one WOL-AM’s nightly sportstalk show, The Sports Groove.

Mitchell decried Shapiro’s column as “bigoted, racist garbage,” and then really cut loose. With some prodding from host Mark Gray, Mitchell called Shapiro a “racist, conniving skunk,” took a breath, and called him “a racist conniving dog of a skunk.”

“Everything he writes,” Mitchell continued, “is inaccurate. No research, it’s just lazy. When’s the last time Leonard Shapiro broke anything? He’s just an old white guy hanging on.”

Let the healing begin.

Tonight’s vigil for Sean Taylor appears to be organized by the fans. Here’s some info if you want to make the trip.

From EXTREMESKINS.com:

“Time:
6pm-10pm

Location:
Redskins Park
21300 Redskin Park Dr,
Ashburn, VA

Info:

- Bring cold weather gear, it has been chilly

- When turning onto Redskin Park drive, do not go to the Gate or the building, look for the truck with the light on top…. we will direct you where to park.

- We will have a limited supply of candles, please bring any if you have them. If you do bring them, remember to bring a cup to protect the flame from the wind.

- You may bring flowers, etc for the Vigil.”

Some sad and weird Sean Taylor posts from EXTREMESKINS.com:

“This is a sad day for Redskins nation and all, but he was just a football player. Yes it truely does suck when a 24 year old man, with a promissing future dies. He was one of my favorite people in the NFL, but just a player non the less. I wish we had this kind of outrage for the thousands of Americans who are dieing in forign wars, sold to us on lies or the 4 million dogs, who are killed every year because of stupidity or the millions of people starving to death around the world.”

On Wearing Taylor’s jersey today:

“I’m wearing mine. Man, I’ll wear it all week. What a horrible loss. I can’t even get my mind around this. God bless him and the daughter he leaves behind.

I never owned a Redskins jersey until recently. I met Brian Mitchell when I was young, maybe 15 years old. I was a big fan of Brian Mitchell and just wanted to shake his hand, maybe get an autograph. In not so many words, he pretty much told me to take a hike and GTFO of his face.

This was one of the many experiences in life that made me a little less naive and a little more cynical. I never rooted for players again after that. I rooted for the Redskins logo and my city.

The era of Free Agency only reinforced my adamant refusal to buy a jersey. I would see Arrington jerseys, Bailey jerseys, etc., and was glad I never invested. Sean Taylor changed that for me. Seeing him play, his modest and humble demeanor, it was his jersey and ONLY his jersey I was willing to wear.

It will be the only Redskins jersey I will ever own.

RIP Sean.”

And:

“His rookie # 36 jersey is hanging in my office now. Don’t know what else to do….”

The DCist on Sean Taylor’s death easily wins this morning’s cliche sweepstakes with this:

“Unfortunately, he leaves that life unfinished.”

And this:

“So, it’s easy to sum up a game, hard to sum up a life. This is as it should be.”

Whoppers both.

“The team really needs Sean Taylor,” I told my brother after a recent disappointing loss.

“If the defense had Sean Taylor…” I said after another recent disappointing loss.

Now the Redskins will never have Sean Taylor floating, hovering, stinging on defense. Now all we have is this mourning ritual—from “Praying for Sean” to the instant Sean-Taylor-is-Dead promo on SportsTalk 980 to the inevitable essays and column inches spilled on how the culture of sports has changed, gotten more thuggish, etc., to black banners, more vigils, and Skins flags at half mast.

All I could think about this morning was Len Bias.

And then all I could think about his how Daniel Snyder is going to handle this. The team has already moved the fans away from their vigil at Taylor’s parking spot. Is Snyder going to try and make money off this? Or is he going to rise up and be a good guy?