Landon Collins and the No. 21 Conundrum

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A few nights ago at a dinner introducing newly added safety Landon Collins, Redskins team owner Dan Snyder actually coaxed some tears from the former Alabama star when he handed over a gift: a signed, game-worn Sean Taylor jersey.

It’s a gesture loaded with symbolism.  Collins, who featured heavily the last few seasons with the New York Giants, wore number 21.  Taylor, as most know, wore 21 during his tragically short career in DC where he routinely laid waste to opposing players.  In addition, the act itself seems to demonstrate a massive amount of expectations being laid upon Collins, who many hope will super charge a middling Redskins defense that desperately needed backend help.

If anyone needed a measure of confirmation as to just how much potential the Redskins see in their new free agency prize, this should quiet any doubt.

The question is, should Collins be allowed to wear 21?  Furthermore, should anyone be allowed to wear it ever again?

Make no mistake, Collins would consider it an honor to carry Taylor’s numbers back onto the field, as 106.7’s Grant Paulsen pointed out:

And who wouldn’t?  From 2004-2007, Sean Taylor was a wraith in the Washington secondary.  It wasn’t just his ability to elevate his 6’2″ frame to stratosphere-scraping heights to intercept passes and it wasn’t even the way that he would cut blistering arcs across the turf to vaporize hapless opponents, but most notably in the way he made these feats look so …effortless.

Even when held up to incredible talents from the last few years like Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas and Eric Berry, Taylor still seems almost inhuman.  After 299 tackles and 12 interceptions in four seasons with the Redskins, the tragedy of both Taylor’s passing and the briefness of his career still reverberates among the Redskins fan base.  His legacy is towering and whenever his name is mentioned it’s an all too raw reminder that he very likely could and should have ended a long career as the best safety to ever play the game.

Sacred ground isn’t easy to negotiate and most Redskins fans that were alive to see Taylor play will tell you that the 21 shirt is tied directly to the legacy of one of the best to ever play in DC.  You can ride the metro from Reston to New Carrolton, drive from Columbia to Fredericksburg and I doubt you’ll find a soul between the ages of 30 and 70 who disagree with that point.

The retiring of numbers in the sports world at-large is one of those unshakeable traditions.  Across the spectrum of hero-worship, perhaps it’s the most elevated.  You’re literally putting that person and their number, symbolically, out of reach.  Personally, I think it’s a question of if, not when, Sean Taylor is admitted to the ring of honor.  If anything, Landon Collins’ arrival and the question of what he’ll wear on-field might only accelerate that conversation.

Maybe Snyder handing over the jersey was an simply an overwrought way of saying “welcome home” and all I’m doing is spilling ink inside the vacuum that is the offseason.  Or maybe it is a big deal because legacy, the kind that people look back on reverently, is endlessly important, especially where it concerns a program that perpetually falls on its face and lacks the grace to be ashamed.

Landon Collins isn’t Sean Taylor and it’s flat-out unfair to expect that he could ever be Sean Taylor.  If the football gods are kind, he’ll churn out a HoF-worthy career in DC and help transform a defense in need of out-in-front leadership.  Fair or unfair, pulling the no. 21 jersey over his pads every Sunday carries weight.  It means something.  If he should elect to wear that number, he needs to be fully aware that he’s walking in the footsteps of giants and no matter how he plays his game, no matter how much he develops his own brand, the shadow of Sean Taylor will always loom close by.