“God needed a defensive coordinator”. Funeral for community leader
Usually, when we discuss sports on this platform, the common sports addict. However, there are millions of relevant and impactful coaches in urban communities.Unfortunately, God needed this defensive coordinator more than his football team.
For every 210 or so players drafted every year in the NFL theres’s hundreds if not thousands of coaches that have impacted their lives that you will never hear aboutThese coaches will never receive shoe deals, never become millionaires, and will work multiple jobs in addition to coaching.
Coaches Sacrifice fame, glory, and recognition so players can win as many championships in the game of life as possible. This defensive coordinator sacrificed more than that, he sacrificed his life.
Yesterday’s playoff game proved why Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is considered by many the greatest coach in the history of the sport.
East Cleveland’s Football coach Deon Taylor built great relationships with his players that he mentored as well. Similar to loud coaches were programmed to expect motivational speakers and mentors in the inner city, to be loud and unsympathetic.
Look no further than movies such as lean on me and coach carter. Despite the violence and fatherless homes in the urban community, there are Belichecks in every community.
Players coaches, men of the people, men who see the potential in children that no one else saw. sometimes not even their own parents. East Cleveland lost one of those men on January 12th 2019,
While trying to defuse a fight between a friend and 2 people Taylor was shot and killed. Taylor died actually putting someone’s safety over his, which speaks to his character. It also validates the numerous good things friends and family had to say about him at his funeral.
Held on a cold, freezing Saturday morning, hundreds of people huddlled into the Lakeview church in Cleveland Ohio. Many were left standing as seats filled the church in less than 40 minutes. After the funeral, I spoke with former East Cleveland now Sandusky Ohio fire chief Rick Wilcox. For 26 years Wilcox was involved in little league football and has known Taylor the same amount of time.
“God needed a defensive coordinator,” Says Wilcox. Wilcox described Taylor as one of the most “loyal” men in the history of East Cleveland. According to Wilcox, Taylor played for the east Cleveland chiefs as a kid. It was then, Taylor felt the impact and void filled with having a positive male role model in his life.
Tom Brady may best the best quarterback of all time, but Belichick is most known for his defensive schemes. Billicheck remakes his defense every week exposing the NFL’s most elite offenses weakness’s. Versus’s the #1 offense, Belichick’s held them under their average ppg in yesterday’s playoff game. His strategy? to Billicheck managed the clock to keep the Chiefs offense off the field as much as possible.
In conclusion, as a defensive coordinator, Taylor used his time on the field to keep kids off the street. Instead of becoming another statistic in the morgue, kids were more concerned about statistics on the stat sheet. They say defense wins championships if so Taylor was and still is a champion in the hearts of the people.