A Hole in the Redskins Secondary

This is gonna be tacky, and subject to being instantly wrong and offensive -- but what else is a blog for? But I have had a great nose for news and my instincts are usually right.

This morning, Washington Redskins player Sean Taylor -- who was away from the team at his home supposedly recovering from a game injury -- was shot and critically wounded. Until recently, he has been known as an excellent, hard-nosed, dirty, vicious, spit-in-your-face, thug from the University of Miami who delighted in associating with criminals and violating team and league rules.

All day, the local media have been saying what a good guy he really is and mindlessly spouting a narrative that I just don't believe. Talk radio, and TV for that matter, are reporting as fact things known and reported to policy only by Taylor's girlfriend.

The narrative goes like this:

Ten days ago, someone broke into Taylor's expensive home in a gated, crimeless community by forcing a window. Taylor had recently gotten rid of dogs. One presumes there was an alarm. Several rooms were rifled but no property losses were reported to police.

The burglary may well have happened either by common criminals or people with a beef against Taylor, legions as they may be. A knife was left behind, according to the police report.

This morning, in this presumably alarmed home in a gated community, with unspecified other family members living there (including Taylor's infant daughter), someone supposedly enters the house and approaches the master bedroom. Taylor, who for reason of his previous convictions is proscribed from owning a gun, picks up a machete as the door opens inward and he is shot in the groin.

His girlfriend calls 911. Fifteen hours later there is not yet a description of the assailant.

Questions:

-- How did the burglar(s) get in without an alarm going off, assuming there would be an alarm? How does a burglar repeatedly get into a gated community?

-- Didn't the "other" family members hear anything?

-- Why would a burglar head for the bedroom of sleeping residents? Burglars are wusses and avoid confrontation, which is why they aren't armed robbers. And why would petty criminals hit the same house twice in 10 days in a community where there is no serious crime because there is a guy in a booth taking down the names and plates of everyone who enters?

-- If you were to ask any sample of Redskins fans which of the 53 roster players was most likely to be shot in his multimillion-dollar mansion, how many would choose someone other than Taylor?

-- Is it not obvious to even Inspector Clouseau that the girlfriend shot him in the groin by the bedroom door as he attempted to leave?