MIAMI – There's a certain lump that swells in the throat when you stare at a casket you shouldn't be seeing. I have experienced that now three times this year – twice with family members gone much too soon and again today with Sean Taylor, just 24 years old.

I didn't know Taylor, but I know how special he was by taking nothing more than a quick glance around Pharmed Arena on the campus of Florida International University Monday, where his funeral was taking place. In the 4,700 seats are people with that familiar look – shock, crippling sadness, anger, disbelief. They all know they're not supposed to be here. But they are.

Before the services began, soft music played while a highlight reel rolled of Taylor playing football for the University of Miami and the Washington Redskins. Other than the strings and melody of the recordings, there was no noise. Just focus. People staring up blankly at two big screens where Taylor was seen delivering crushing blows on opponents, intercepting passes, sacking quarterbacks, celebrating good moments on the field with his teammates.

That is how Taylor is known to football fans across America. Not the image of him alone in a flower-draped coffin, surrounded by lovely floral arrangements on easels, including one bearing his popular jersey number 21.

A large delegation of players, coaches and executives with the Washington Redskins made the trip to South Florida for the services. Many other National Football Leagues players and former University of Miami stars are here too – including the NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. There's even been a sighting of O.J. Simpson. 

VIDEO: Sean Taylor remembered

Having worked at one time as a reporter covering the NFL, I know every player who has passed away isn't remembered with such a show of unity. Nothing against those men. This simply shows how treasured Taylor was to a great many people whose lives he touched.

TV satellite trucks are set up all around the arena. We reporters all seem to say the same thing: A life cut short. A player in his prime who delighted crowds. A young father learning the responsibilities of being a dad. A man who wanted nothing more than to get his college degree, which his girlfriend said he was going after starting next month.

Life has a way of interrupting our plans. The four young men charged in Taylor's murder didn't plan on shooting him, much less killing him, according to Miami-Dade police. But they allegedly did.

And here we all are.