Sean Taylor's Brother Gabe: Family Only Recently Heard About WFT Jersey Retirement

The younger brother of former Washington defensive back Sean Taylor did not receive much advance notice about the Football Team's plans to retire his brother's No. 21 jersey.

"I found out probably, I'll say like four days ago," Gabe Taylor, who plays football at Rice, said during an interview with 106.7 The Fan.

On Thursday, team president Jason Wright apologized that there was not much advance notice for the ceremony prior to Sunday's game against the Kansas City Chiefs at FedEx Field.

He said the intent was to "focus the message on Sean and his legacy" by announcing the ceremony the week of the game and that alumni weekend felt like the "right moment" for the retirement.

Wright also said the team planned to invite Taylor's family.

"But we screwed up the execution and, as a result, we realize that we hurt many of our fans deeply," he wrote. "And for that I and we as an organization are sorry."

He continued: "We didn't realize that so many of you wanted to make a trip to FedEx Field to be present for this moment—a true lack of understanding of what you, the lifeblood of this franchise, needed to mourn our collective loss and celebrate Sean's legacy."

However, the decision to announce the ceremony the way the Football Team did was also met with skepticism.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk pointed out the announcement came as Washington is being investigated for workplace misconduct. Some saw the timing of the Taylor news as a possible distraction from the recent headlines as a portion of the 650,000 emails the NFL gathered as part of the investigation started to leak into the media.

Wright did not mention the emails in his apology.

Washington has been in the headlines after Ken Belson and Katherine Rosman of the New York Times reported former team president Bruce Allen and NFL general counsel Jeff Pash exchanged racially insensitive emails.

Belson and Rosman's previous report on emails between former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden and Allen, among others, led to the coach's resignation. It was revealed Gruden used racist, anti-gay and misogynistic language.

Andrew Beaton of the Wall Street Journal reported Gruden used a racist trope in 2011 to describe NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith, who is Black.

Taylor was the No. 5 overall pick of the 2004 NFL draft and quickly became a fan favorite in Washington.

He was a two-time Pro Bowler and appeared to be well on his way to a legendary career, but he died during his fourth season in November 2007 of a gunshot wound from an intruder.