At 1:45 Monday morning, an intruder shot 24-year-old Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor at his Miami home, with his 18-month-old daughter and girlfriend hiding in a bedroom nearby.

He was rushed to a local hospital, but suffered massive blood loss and died the next day. He never regained full consciousness after the initial injury. The intruder fired two gunshots, one misfiring, and the second striking Taylor’s femoral artery. His child and girlfriend were unharmed.

This tragic incident is another instance to add to a difficult past few months in the sporting world that reminds us of something we often forget.

Athletes are real people, living real lives, sometimes with real sorrow. They suffer from the same emotions as every other living person; theirs just happen to be publicly critiqued and often abused.

Taylor’s murder follows the sudden death of another professional athlete; journeyman left hander Joe Kennedy of the Major Leagues unexpectedly died last week. Kennedy woke in the middle of the night last Friday and then collapsed. He was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead. Doctors will not know the exact cause of death for a few weeks, but they suspect Kennedy had an enlarged heart.

Then there is the death of world class marathoner Ryan Shay. He collapsed 5 ½ miles into the U.S. Olympic marathon trials in New York earlier this month, and died on the spot. The cause of his death still remains undetermined, but an enlarged heart is again suspected.

Sean Taylor’s death is offensive and shocking, as he leaves behind family and an extremely bright NFL career.

“What got cut short here was a career that was going to go to a lot of Pro Bowls and have a lot of fun,” Taylor’s NFL coach Joe Gibbs said in an interview with ESPN.

Sean Taylor was named to his first Pro Bowl last season and was posting even better numbers this year, well on his way to earning a second straight trip.

“Sean Taylor was blessed with the kind of extraordinary physical attributes that all NFL safeties covet. At 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds, Taylor’s ability to hawk down opposing wide receivers and his natural instinct for finding the football is what made him a Pro Bowl player,” Marwan Maalouf of Scouts Inc. said, according to ESPN.

In honor of Taylor, the Redskins will wear a patch on their jerseys and a number 21 sticker on their helmets for the remainder of the season.

Taylor, Kennedy and Shay’s deaths are costly reminders of the struggles of life, the life we all live. And again, the deaths remind us that athletes are still just people. They wake and go to sleep the same days we do. It’s so easy to forget.

With sports in trouble with the law, with Barry Bonds’ recent indictment and Michael Vick’s current court case, I urge us not to forget that these professional athletes have emotions too. They must live the same up and down emotional train wreck of an existence we do. The only difference is that theirs are watched under a microscope, criticized and belittled or praised to absurd extremes.

It’s sad that it takes tragic deaths to remind us of this blatantly obvious fact. Instead of critiquing them, we should let them live their personal lives in peace. We must show them respect while they are alive, not just after they tragically die.