‘I had to make my family proud’: Gabe Taylor elevates unbeaten Gulliver
Gabe Taylor smiles as his older brother’s name peers over his shoulder. “I’ve got a story for you,” he says before practice starts one day at Sean Taylor Memorial Field. He has a new entry to add in the canon of superheroic Sean Taylor feats.
It was Thanksgiving and Gabe was 5 or 6. Everyone was playing basketball at Sean’s house, and one of Sean’s friends dunked and pulled the hoop down. Gabe was beneath it, so Sean sprung into action and caught the hoop out of the air just before it fell on his younger brother.
Gabe can only remember so much. Sean was already playing for the Miami Hurricanes when Gabe was born in 2001. He remembers tagging along for workouts with his older brother. He remembers watching Sean play for the Washington Redskins, particularly one game when he grabbed an interception, returned it for a touchdown and handed it to Gabe sitting in the crowd.
Gabe even remembers a little bit from the day his older brother died from a gunshot wound in 2007. The doctor treating Sean told the family he had never seen anyone fight harder for his life.
“It really stuck with me,” Taylor said, “like I’ve got to push myself every single time I do something.”
Nineteen years after Sean Taylor led Gulliver Prep to its only state championship, Gulliver is once again undefeated and on the short list of favorites for the Class 4A championship, and a Taylor is leading the way. Gabe Taylor, who has the same father as his brother, is back playing football for the first time since eighth grade and he’s a true superstar.
Gulliver had high hopes for what the next Taylor could do, but coaches couldn’t possibly have foreseen this. With the Raiders’ postseason set to begin Friday against Booker T. Washington in the Region 4-4A semifinals, Taylor has 10 interceptions, an astonishing five of which he has returned for touchdowns. The Miami-Dade County record of 12 picks is well within reach.
His lone season playing for Gulliver has been positively Taylor-like.
“I had to make my family proud,” Taylor said. “I had to put a Gulliver jersey on for the last time.”
The Raiders’ lofty expectations weren’t just because of Taylor’s last name. The free safety was a legitimate youth football star in his own right, he was just small when he got to high school. He was also always attracted to basketball — and he’s a star point guard, too — so he decided to focus on his own sport once he started at the Pinecrest campus.
Gulliver’s coaches spent three years badgering Taylor. If he was even a fraction of what his older brother was, Taylor would be a star.
It probably would have been different if he was suiting up as a freshman, if there was no reputation of his own already established.
“When he finally came out, he’s Gabriel Taylor and I think he’s kind of been adamant about that,” Raiders coach Earl Sims said. “Everything happened when it was supposed to, to the people that it was supposed to. It seems magical, but I think it’s probably God’s will.”
Taylor insists a return for his junior or senior season was always part of the plan, and he swears he expected college interest to flow in once he got back on the field.
It all started against Belen Jesuit in the Gulliver’s second game of the season. It wasn’t altogether surprising when he made a diving interception in the blowout win. When he spiked the ball to the turf at Sean Taylor Field and pumped his fists, it could have been the end of a feel-good story.
Instead, it continued all season long. Two weeks later, he grabbed another interception against LaSalle and ran it back for a touchdown, and then he did the same thing the next week against King’s Academy.
“There’s an expectation. Sean Taylor’s name carries weight here and throughout the nation. He’s not just a local guy,” Gulliver safeties coach Andre Maddox said. “He’s probably the most talented safety that I’ve ever seen play, and his brother shows flashes of him and some of the things that he does — his knack for the ball, his hunger, the way when he gets the ball he wants to score.”
The Raiders might have a dozen future Division I players on the roster and still Taylor might be the most valuable. Even the interceptions he doesn’t bring back for touchdowns, he does his best to weave through traffic for long returns. Gulliver even uses him as a Wildcat quarterback, and he has run for 153 yards and three touchdowns on just 12 carries.
Throw in 40 total tackles, five tackles for loss and a sack, and Taylor is a star for reasons other than his knack for the ball. The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers have offered Taylor a scholarship, and the Duke Blue Devils and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets have expressed interest. Miami has kept in touch with him a little bit, too.
“I talked to them a couple times, but I’m still waiting,” Taylor said. “For my family, that would be big.”
Every once in awhile, he gives Maddox a flashback. It’s more than 20 years ago now that the assistant coach was sharing a defensive backfield with Sean Taylor at Killian High, spending offseason afternoons working out together together at Maddox’s house and running at a nearby park.
Sometimes the flashbacks are just from seeing Gabe’s face because he looks so similar to his older brother. Sometimes the flashbacks are in the voice, especially when the safety says something his brother might have said.
It all rushes back most for anytime Pete Taylor is around. The Taylors’ father father put Sean through the paces while he was young and Maddox was around for some infamous Pete Taylor workouts. Maddox sees him treat Gabe the same way.
“I did the same workouts — run the hills, run the highway,” Taylor said. “Everything he did, I did.”
When told as part of the legend of Sean Taylor, the workouts sound sort of like urban myths passed around South Florida — an explanation for Taylor’s often-inexplicable greatness. Pete used to spring workouts on him at any moment. Driving past a particularly steep hill? Pull over and make Sean run up it. Caught in some traffic on the Palmetto Expressway? Drop Sean off on the side of the road and make him run to keep up.
Maddox can vouch for their authenticity. Gabe is evidence, perhaps, of their effectiveness.
For all Gabe’s similarities to Sean, there’s one key difference — he’s quite a bit smaller. Taylor was listed at 6-foot-2 and 212 pounds for his final season in the NFL. Gabe is 5-10 and 170 pounds.
“Work ethic can overcome a lot of obstacles,” Maddox said.
Taylor has had the work ethic since the beginning. Even though he was born 18 years after his older brother, Taylor would tag along for his brother’s offseason workouts. He wouldd run through all the same footwork drills and run up the same hills.
There are worse role models to mimic.
“You’re very lucky,” Pete remembers Sean telling Gabe, “you’re starting at an early age. You’re training early with me.’”
More than 12 years after the final full Taylor-family workout, Gulliver is four wins from achieving something it only did when Taylor was there.
Gabe said he didn’t feel any external pressure the first time he stepped on Taylor Field. Pete said it just sort of felt natural because of how good Gabe was when he was younger.
It does all feel right. If the Raiders win another state title, a Taylor will be in the middle of it.
“It’s been 19 years since the team went to the state championship,” Pete said. “Almost 19 years later, to see it all come around again is an awesome feeling.”
This story was originally published November 14, 2019 at 12:52 PM.
