On this day, 37 years ago, a Washington Redskins legend was born.
Sean Taylor came into this world on April 1, 1983, and he tragically was killed on November 27th, 2007. During his time alive, Taylor became notorious as the hardest hitting safety in the NFL, and a future Hall-of-Famer who would never have his legend touched.
Though the Redskins have only retired one jersey in their franchise’ history — Sammy Baugh’s No. 33 — no other player has worn No. 21 since Taylor was killed. There haven’t been many arguments for allowing a player to wear it until Landon Collins came around in 2019, that is.
Collins, a Pro Bowl safety who grew up idolizing Taylor, wore No. 21 throughout his career in the legend’s memory. When signing with Washington, he asked team owner Dan Snyder if he could keep that number, but instead, Snyder gifted him a signed Taylor jersey.
Former Redskins running back Clinton Portis thinks this was the right call.
“I don’t ever want to see nobody else in it,” Portis said, via The Athletic. “When the situation came up for me with 26, I don’t care. But 21, that’s sacred. Why even play with people? Why even spark people’s memories? Retire that jersey. For an organization that don’t retire jerseys or don’t officially retire jerseys, you put that [expletive] in the rafters, you retire it, and you make sure everybody knows, this is irreplaceable.”
Collins is now wearing No. 20 with the Redskins, and he will likely keep that through the rest of his career with the team. Snyder has discussed retiring more jerseys in Washington, but there is not yet word on when it will happen. Regardless, No. 21 will never be worn in Washington again.
