Fred Taylor

Frederick Antwon Taylor (born January 27, 1976) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons during the 1990s and 2000s.

He played college football for the Florida Gators, earning third-team All-American honors.

Taylor accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, where he played for coach Steve Spurrier's Gators from 1994 to 1997.

Taylor started two games as a true freshman, picking up 873 yards and eight touchdowns.

As a sophomore in 1995, he played in six games, gaining 281 yards and scoring five touchdowns.

Taylor returned in 1996 to start two of the seven games he played, running for 629 yards and five touchdowns, and helping the 12–1 Gators win the national championship.

As a senior team captain in 1997, Taylor was the team's leading rusher with 1,292 yards on 214 carries and scoring 13 touchdowns, earning first-team All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) recognition and Associated Press third-team All-American honors, and was chosen by his teammates as the Gators' most valuable player.

He finished his college career ranked fourth in school history with 3,075 yards and 31 touchdowns.

In one of a series of articles about the top 100 Gators from the first 100 seasons of Florida football, The Gainesville Sun sports editors ranked Taylor as the No. 36 all-time greatest Gator.

Taylor was selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars with the ninth overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft, and he played for the Jaguars and New England Patriots of the NFL.

Taylor is a member of the 10,000 yard rushing club; his 4.6 yards per carry is sixth highest among members of the club in history.

Fred is currently a co-host of The Pivot Podcast with friends, Channing Crowder and Ryan Clark.

Taylor was born in Pahokee, Florida.

He attended Glades Central High School in Belle Glade, Florida, where he was a standout high school football player for the Glades Central Raiders.

He was also a letterman in track.

Taylor initially played linebacker, but switched to running back as a junior.

As a senior, he ran for 1,700 yards and 22 touchdowns, including a 301-yard, 5-touchdown outing.

He received Florida "Super Senior" and all-state honors.

Taylor was drafted ninth overall in the 1998 NFL Draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars with the first of two picks they acquired in a trade with the Buffalo Bills in exchange for quarterback Rob Johnson.

Taylor started 12 of 15 games for the Jaguars as a rookie in 1998, rushing for 1,223 yards and 14 touchdowns, the latter total a career-high, while also catching 44 passes for 421 yards and three touchdowns.

In 1999, Taylor played in ten games, starting nine, missing six due to a hamstring injury.

He ranked second on the team with 732 yards, but posted two 100-yard rushing performances in the playoffs.

Taylor also recorded the longest run in playoff history with a 90-yard touchdown run in a 62-7 win over Miami.

Overall, injuries caused Taylor to miss 23 out of a potential 48 games from 1999 to 2001.

Fans and media were highly critical of Taylor's tendency to get injured, questioning his toughness and donning him the moniker "Fragile Fred", which deeply upset him, as he would later admit.

He missed three and a half games in 2000, but still finished sixth in the NFL with 1,399 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns, while making 36 catches for 240 yards for another two touchdowns.

Taylor played in the first two games of 2001 before suffering a groin injury and missing the rest of the season.

Despite knowing that Taylor's season was over in Week 3 of 2001, Jaguars coach Tom Coughlin listed him on the injury report as "questionable" every game for the remainder of the season, further fueling the doubts of Taylor's toughness in the minds of fans.

He still has not completely rid himself of the stigma and the nickname.

Following the 2001 season, it was alleged that Taylor's agent William "Tank" Black had stolen between $12 million and $14 million from players he had represented, and that Black had laundered nearly all of Taylor's $5 million signing bonus, the only guaranteed money in his rookie contract.

In 2002, Taylor rebounded to start all 16 games for the Jaguars, finishing the season with 1,314 yards, third most in team history, while setting a then-team record with 1,722 yards from scrimmage.

He also set a career-high with 49 receptions, second-highest on the Jaguars, for 408 yards, and also recorded eight touchdowns.

He again started all 16 games for the Jaguars in 2003 and set a career-high with 1,572 yards on 345 carries for six touchdowns.

He also caught 48 passes for 370 yards.

In 2007, 13 years after he graduated from high school, the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) recognized Taylor as one of the "100 Greatest Players of the First 100 Years" of Florida high school football.

In track & field, Taylor competed as a sprinter.

He recorded personal-bests of 10.85 seconds in the 100 meters and 22.32 seconds in the 200 meters.

He was also a member of the 4 × 100 m (42.05 seconds) relay team.

In an interview with Vic Ketchman of Jaguars.com in November 2007, Taylor admitted he seriously considered retiring from football early in his career, because of the difficulties he experienced with injuries and Tank Black.

He was inducted into the Florida–Georgia Hall of Fame in 2008, and the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 2010.