It’s been 15 years since Sean Taylor was gunned down at his home—and 15 years since he predicted his little brother would follow in his football footsteps. At RiceFootball, alex_prewitt finds a young strong safety who’s living up to his family name:
In his most intimate moments of mourning, when no one but ghosts were watching, Gabriel Taylor would bring his big brother back to life. It’s a ritual that started when he was 9 years old. He would put on the football helmet and scowl behind its rainbow-tinted visor, stalking from room to room like the floor was a defensive backfield. He would sneer through its gold facemask, barking trash talk across an invisible line of scrimmage.
Gabriel was born on Sept. 27, 2001, the same Thursday that Sean—then a true freshman at Miami, starting on special teams for his hometown team—made a trio of tackles in a road win over Pittsburgh. Despite the 18-year age gap between the brothers , an instantaneous bond was formed. “The first time Sean held Gabe, he cradled him like a football and was like, ‘Oh my God, am I doing it right?’ ” says Gabriel’s mother, Simone Taylor. “I remember [Sean] looking at him and thinking he was so cute.
A reclusive type who gave few interviews, Sean betrayed little to the public beyond a hard-edged exterior that occasionally went over the line. Those close to him, however, recall a tender side, especially when it came to his brother. “He loved Gabriel because he was looking at his Mini-Me,” Simone says. Asked what memories are sharp from their time together, Gabriel replies, “Of course, workouts. Video games.
This was the summer of 2008, nine months after Sean died from gunshot wounds suffered during a late-night burglary attempt at his home in the Miami suburb of Palmetto Bay, where he was visiting his fiancé, Jackie García, and his baby daughter, Jackie. Soon enough, though, Gabriel was sprinting toward Sean’s dream for him. By his 10th birthday he was already well versed in football film study, regularly requesting that his parents tape his Pop Warner games so he could pore over the footage; in middle school he once drew the ire of an especially stern teacher by retreating to the back of the classroom to crank out push-ups after having finished his assignment.
That honor also marked a turning point after a stormy start to his college career, beginning with four weeks of isolation in summer 2020 due to a positive COVID-19 test. Secluded in a dorm room, with barely any natural light and with meals dropped outside his door, Gabriel says he shed upward of 20 pounds—and a bit of his drive. “I had time to sit and think,” he says.
Jetting back to Houston that same night, Gabriel made it back for Monday’s practice and soon learned that he would be making his first collegiate start that Saturday, against UAB. “And he balled out,” safeties coach Colin Spencer says, pointing to “one of the best forced fumbles I’ve ever seen,” in which the safety missed an open-field tackle yet still managed to chase down the ballcarrier and punch the football free.
But football’s culture has also changed, in large part as a response to increased player safety concerns from the type of hits that Sean used to dole out. So Gabriel huddles several times each week with Spencer, his position coach, poring over tape of the Saints’ Tyrann Mathieu, the Chargers’ Derwin James and other elite DBs. “My instinct is to get the ball. [Sean’s was] more to hit you as hard as he can,” Gabriel says.
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