Taylor Mays

His father played defensive tackle for the University of Washington in the late 1970s, and was later drafted in the ninth round of the 1980 NFL Draft by the then-St. Louis Cardinals and later played as a defensive lineman for the Minnesota Vikings from 1987 to 1988.

His mother worked as an executive vice president at Nordstrom, and his father, Stafford, worked as a Microsoft executive.

From a young age, Mays always had a deep desire to play football; his father recalls Mays, at age 14, doing homework with his football helmet on.

Mays also spent a lot of time as a kid watching old football tapes from when his father played.

While his parents initially didn't allow him to play football, he played soccer and was noted as being very physical and much bigger than the other kids which led to his parents eventually letting him try out for the football team in the 7th grade.

Mays attended O'Dea High School, a Catholic boys high school located in Seattle, Washington's First Hill neighborhood in the 98104 zip code.

Before playing football, Mays joined the track & field team to work on his speed.

Taylor Mays (born February 7, 1988) is a former American football safety.

He won Washington state titles in track in both the 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash as a high school sophomore, before leaving track and field to dedicate himself to football.

He played college football at USC, and was a three-time first-team All-American.

He had a football-themed bar mitzvah in February 2001.

Speaking of his bar mitzvah, he said: "I don't think at the time I really understood what it meant. Now, looking back on it, I feel like I have come a long way in regards to maturity and becoming an adult. I think it helped me do that".

Growing up, he "celebrated Chanukah, Passover, and Yom Kippur always".

As a sophomore at O'Dea in 2004, Mays won both the 100-meter dash (10.54 s) and 200-meter dash (21.64 s) titles in the 3A State championships in the spring of 2004 before leaving track behind after his junior year to dedicate his last year in high school to prepare for football at the next level.

As a junior in 2004, he posted 124 tackles, 5 interceptions and 75 deflections, catching 25 passes for 700 yd with 23 touchdowns and returning 12 punts for 392 yd with 10 touchdowns while earning Student Sports Junior All-American honors as a defensive back, wide receiver and quarterback.

His final year at O'Dea, he collected 166 tackles, 5 interceptions and 5 pass deflections as a safety while catching 36 passes for 765 yd and 15 touchdowns.

As a senior in 2005, he was named All-State First-team and All-Metro League Mountain Division Offensive MVP and Defensive Co-MVP.

He also returned 12 punts for 392 yd and 3 touchdowns.

On May 21, 2005, Mays participated in the 2005 Palo Alto Nike, Inc. Training Camp.

Listed at 6'3", 218-pounds, Mays ran a 4.59 in the 40-yard dash, recorded 21 reps of 185-pounds on bench press and posted a 31" vertical jump.

By age 17, Mays was 6' 3", 228-pounds.

Mays was expected to attend Washington in the footsteps of his father, but didn't want to fall under his father's shadow and decided to build his own legacy while citing Pete Carroll's enthusiasm and coaching style as a major factor in his decision, officially committing on August 14, 2005.

Mays played for the West Team in the 2006 U.S. Army All-American Bowl game alongside future USC teammates Mitch Mustain and Stafon Johnson.

He posted three tackles in the game.

Rivals.com listed Mays as the No. 1 overall prospect in the state of Washington in 2006.

While considering offers from USC, Washington and Miami, Mays elected to commit to the University of Southern California after being recruited by defensive back coaches Rocky Seto and Greg Burns.

Mays received an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Southern California, where he played for head coach Pete Carroll's USC Trojans football team from 2006 to 2009.

Mays got the start at free safety his freshman year after Josh Pinkard went down with a season-ending injury in their first game against Arkansas.

His first college career interception came in week 5 against Washington State.

Throughout the year he was a solid safety recording 62 tackles in only 12 starts and an ended the year leading his team in interceptions with 3.

In 2006, Mays became the third player in Trojan history to be named the Pac-10's Co-Freshman of The Year while also earning Second-team All-American, 1st-team Freshman All-American and Defensive Freshman of the Year honors from Sporting News magazine.

Mays surprised a lot of people throughout the nation when it was stated by Pete Carroll that the 6' 3", 230-pound freshman was the fastest player on a top-tier team built with some of the speediest players in the nation. Teammate running back Joe McKnight stated: "He's faster than me.

I wish I had it, whatever he has." According to Carroll, Mays was clocked at an astonishing 4.25 in the 40 yd dash, .01 seconds slower than the record set at the 2008 NFL Combine by Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson. Mays also said that he models his game after former USC safety and Pro Football Hall of Fame safety Ronnie Lott and the late Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor: "He's been my favorite player.

I look up to (former USC safety) Ronnie Lott, too.

That's what's special being in this program, living up to the safeties here."

Mays switched from No. 29 to No. 2 after his freshman season for former Florida State player Deion Sanders and former Michigan player Charles Woodson who both wore the number while playing defensive back in college.

He was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the second round of the 2010 NFL Draft and also played in the NFL for the Cincinnati Bengals and Oakland Raiders, playing in 66 regular season NFL games.

Mays was born in Irving, Texas, the son of Stafford Mays, a former NFL defensive lineman, and Laurie Mays (née Black), a Nordstrom executive.

He is African-American and Jewish and was raised in his mother's Jewish religion.

Growing up he attended Sunday school from a young age, and then Hebrew school twice a week.