Could Sean Taylor's Death Have Been Avoided?

I knew very little about Sean Taylor before last week. I knew he was a Pro-Bowl safety and one of the hardest hitting football players in the NFL. I knew that he had been in trouble before but was apparently trying to "turn his life around" as we hear so often about professional athletes. With that said, there is just one thought that keeps popping into my head more and more.

Couldn't this whole thing have been avoided?

By now, we all know that somebody had broken into Sean Taylor's Miami home a week before he was murdered and left a knife on his bed. While nothing is certain at this point of the investigation I cannot imagine that these two incidents are completely unrelated. That knife seems to be more than just a warning now. It was a promise that was bloodily fulfilled.

What I can't understand, though, is why Taylor was there in the first place. I cannot at all compare myself to Sean Taylor. I am engaged, however. If I believed that there was a real chance of somebody entering my home and endangering me and my fiancée, there is no way that she would be in my home. Taylor obviously was afraid of intruders. Why else would Taylor have a machete in his bedroom "for protection?"

This whole incident is even more disturbing when you listen to those people who were close to Taylor. Antrel Rolle, cornerback for the Arizona Cardinals and childhood friend of Sean Taylor, is certain that Taylor was not the victim of a burglary. Rather, Rolle believes that Taylor was nothing more than a hit.

According to ESPN.com, Rolle told reporters that "This was not the first incident" and that "they had been targeting (Taylor) for three years now." Rolle want on to say that Taylor "lived his life pretty much scared every day of his life when he was down in Miami because those people were targeting him."