The death of Sean Taylor of the Washington Redskins was a shock to fans and friends — and to the other players on the team.

How do you cope with a loss like that? The Washington Post spoke with the Redskin chaplains:

The three men at the forefront of the grief counseling, team chaplains Lee Corder, Brett Fuller and Jerry Leachman, did their best to ease sorrow and make sense of the tragedy. Yet this cadre – most teams have one not three chaplains – was not enough to alleviate the organization’s collective ache.

“I have felt completely inadequate because there are things that man just can’t do,” Fuller said

Fuller, whose full-time job is senior pastor at Grace Covenant Church in Chantilly, is a volunteer chaplain with the team. Normally he spends 10-15 hours a week with the team leading Bible studies and counseling players and coaches. This past week, he practically lived at Redskins Park.

“I can give wisdom where I think it can apply,” Fuller said. “I can help out with perspective and how we need to look at things in order to heal better rather than bitter or maybe [when players are] accusing God of being out to lunch or neglectful of his responsibilities by allowing such a tragedy to happen to a guy who is on the way, I flip it and talk about how wonderful it was we had 3½ years [with Taylor], how nothing is promised.”

Corder conducted a Bible study Friday morning with about 10 members of the coaching staff. Using the Old Testament story of Ezra, he talked about how the coaches can provide leadership during traumatic times.

“What lessons can we learn on how do you manage crisis as a person of faith in a way that makes good out of what is so painful,” said Corder who has been with the team for 20 years.

“When these moments come, you go, okay, now in the times of pain is the time when people of faith can say ‘Let’s stand up and demonstrate our faith by the way we honor those who’ve gone.’ We think of Sean fondly. We remember him. I will tell you personally in my opinion he’s the greatest story the last two years at Redskins Park in terms of what was going on with him in terms of his own faith. He was a young man who was changing and I saw that. No question.”

Many of the players are having a hard time understanding Taylor’s death. No matter how strong or weak their faiths are, they question God’s role in the tragedy. Fuller understands this challenge is part of the grieving process.

“Right now, the whole earth just shook here,” Fuller said. “Everything upon which they trusted has been shaken. When everything you’ve known is not as stable as you thought it should be, yet there are people who have been through the same earthquake and are calm, then that becomes a why? No longer are they asking about God why? They’re asking why are you like this? How are you so stable? How do you make it? What I try to be is who God would be to them even though they don’t believe.”

As team chaplains, the men say they aren’t around the locker room only for those with strong religious backgrounds. They are there to counsel everyone whether they believe in God or not.

“Number one, it would be a poor chaplain who wouldn’t also recognize this is a time of real pain,” Corder said. “We’ve lost a wonderful young man. It’s a tragic and senseless loss. And now you’ve got to make sense out of the senseless loss. I think we become part of that anchor, where guys can go, okay, let’s start pulling on the rope together….You respect others place but you try to give hope in what you believe. Let’s cling on and go together. Let’s all row together and maybe if some of us can pull harder on the oars at this point, others can be blessed by it as well so we all can pull through together.”

There’s more, with a lot of wisdom into the grieving process, wisdom that may be able to help others who find themselves suddenly coping with loss.