Reed Doughty finds himself with the opportunity of a lifetime. It came when a beloved teammate lost his life. How do the Redskins play without SEAN TAYLOR?

"It would be very difficult to step in for a player like that because he is replacing a person who essentially becomes larger than life in death," said Stephen R. Stein, a Washington psychologist. "He's not only dealing with the loss of Taylor but the myth of Taylor. As people dealt with the grief of losing him all week, you could already see his legend growing."

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Stein played down the notion that Doughty or any other person replacing someone in the wake of their death would feel an intense survivor's guilt. But he added that a player such as Doughty might deal with other feelings associated with guilt.

"He didn't survive an assault, but he got the position because someone died," Stein said. "Getting an opportunity like this would make most of us happy. But how do you balance your feelings of happiness knowing you would not have been afforded the opportunity if someone didn't die? It's complex for anyone."

Other athletes have dealt with the same complexities that face Doughty.

Jerry Narron was a 23-year-old rookie catcher for the New York Yankees on Aug. 3, 1979, the day after Thurman Munson, the team's beloved captain, died as a result of a plane crash while piloting his own Cessna.

Narron described playing the day after Munson's death as both tragic and surreal, and had little to offer Doughty in the way of advice except to remember, above all, a family's loss. "Sean Taylor's family first, the Redskins second and yourself third, that's what I would say," Narron said in a telephone interview last week from his home in North Carolina. "I just remember seeing Thurman's family and feeling so bad for them."

In 1979, Narron took Munson's spot at catcher the afternoon after his death, but not before the Yankees paid tribute in a pregame ceremony. The starters stood at their defensive positions, but the catcher's box was left empty. After the organ stopped, a crescendo of 51,000-plus fans applauding for 10 minutes was the only noise heard at Yankee Stadium.

"I remember standing there with Yogi Berra and Elston Howard and everybody saying this would probably be a three-, four-minute thing," Narron said. "It kept going and going. You couldn't help but get emotional. I just remember I was going to do my job and honor him and try to play the game the same way Thurman played."

Narron added: "To play that day, it was hard for me but it would have been hard for anybody. Thurman was the leader. Everybody looked up to him. It was such a loss. After hearing everything, so was Sean Taylor."

Washington Nationals right-hander Jason Simontacchi was with St. Louis when Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile died of a heart attack June 22, 2002, in his hotel room in Chicago.

The team's game that Saturday afternoon at Wrigley Field was canceled. Simontacchi was supposed to pitch on Saturday and Kile on Sunday night, a national ESPN game. With the cancellation, Simontacchi, a rookie who was 5-0 at the time, was moved into Kile's spot. He lasted only four innings and gave up four runs in a Cardinals loss.

"I don't remember much, if anything, about the game," Simontacchi said. "I do remember walking out to the bullpen down the right field line. I remember saying to [pitching coach Dave] Duncan, 'This is unreal.' I don't know how to explain it. You just lost a member of your family, and you just got to step up and play. There was nothing going on in the stands. There wasn't the normal chatter. It was like, 'What is this? What's going on?' You're just in disbelief."