Gabe Taylor has tried not to think about what Saturday’s home opener for the DC Defenders against the Houston Gamblers at Audi Field (noon, ESPN) will mean to him.
He talked about focusing on each day, each practice.
“But I can’t wait to be in that atmosphere,” the Defenders defensive back said before the season started.
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He will be emotional, for sure. He is always that way when it comes to playing games.
But this one will be different.
His brother, Sean, spent four seasons with the then-Washington Redskins. His last game at FedEx Field, now Northwest Stadium, was Nov. 11, 2007. Gabe’s Washington, D.C., debut comes at Audi Field, about a 20-minute drive from where his brother played in Landover, Maryland.
Sean’s No. 21 is retired by Washington. Gabe is wearing No. 21 for the Defenders.
“I love that part of it,” said Santana Moss, who played at the University of Miami, like Sean, and was his teammate in Washington. “I think that’s one of the things that people take for granted. How much Sean meant to him, how much Sean still means to him. And it’s just going to be a way he could continue that progression of kind of wanting to follow in those footsteps.”
Gabe was 6 when his brother was killed. Sean was shot in the upper thigh after confronting a group of intruders at his home on Nov. 26, 2007, in Miami. His femoral artery was severed, causing massive blood loss.
The intruders were unaware Sean would be home because the Redskins had a game in Tampa Bay. He was not playing because of a knee injury, so he was home with his girlfriend and daughter.
A two-time Pro Bowler, viewed as one of the best young players in the game and expected to be one of the best at his position for years to come, Sean was just 24 years old.
Lessons learned when Gabe was 6 remain now that he’s 24. At Rice, where he played 54 games from 2020 to 2024, Gabe watched his brother’s highlights. He tried to watch things his brother did on the field in certain situations or coverages and emulate them in the scheme the Owls used.
“It’s a Taylor mentality,” Gabe said. “We have the Taylor blood and that just sticks to me. Nobody runs you over. Nobody’s taller than the last man standing.”
Their paths to professional football have been different. Sean was the fifth pick in 2004. In 55 games, he had 12 interceptions. Gabe played only one year of high school football at Miami’s Gulliver Prep. In 2023, the school’s football field was renovated and named in Sean’s honor.
At first, Gabe focused on basketball.
“It was like, I can’t just go to Gulliver and not play [football],” Gabe said. “I decided to do one year of high school, senior year. Had 11 picks, six pick-sixes.”
He said some schools, including Miami, Indiana and Louisville, wanted him to go to prep school for a year. He chose Rice in part because he contemplated playing football and basketball, although that didn’t happen.
He finished his career with 159 tackles, 10 interceptions, 10 tackles for loss, 36 pass deflections, five forced fumbles, four sacks and a fumble recovery.
He wasn’t drafted by an NFL team last year perhaps because of his 5-8, 188-pound frame, but he was invited to the Commanders’ rookie minicamp. When he did not earn a contract, he spent the past year working out in Miami, awaiting a call from an NFL team that never came.
In October, he took part in a UFL showcase in Orlando, Florida, and impressed enough to be drafted by the Defenders. The Defenders’ connection goes beyond where the brothers play. Gabe’s coordinator is Blake Williams, the son of Sean’s coordinator, Gregg Williams.
“I’ll tell you this, if he was two inches taller, he wouldn’t be playing in our league right now, for sure,” Defenders coach Shannon Harris said. “He’d definitely be playing in the NFL. But Gabe, man, the kid is very smart. You can see the football pedigree there. He’s another guy that flies around. He’s sticky in coverage. He does a great job getting his hands on the ball, lot of pass deflections.
“We’re excited to have him back in D.C. with us. We had him at our fan event up there and the fans loved him.”
But Moss wants fans to make this about Gabe’s ability, not just that he’s Sean’s brother.
“I get the story because his brother and what he meant to the NFL, what he meant to the University of Miami, what he meant to the Redskins, this organization now today, the Commanders, this area, the DMV. I get the story. That’s fine and dandy,” Moss said. “But Gabe is a hell of a football player. And I believe that he’s all on board for the story and the journey of following his brother’s footsteps. But I think his story is really him, man, trying to live out that childhood dream like everybody else.
“And that’s to me, the story inside the story, man. This guy is a guy that was born to play this game just like his brother. His dad has done an amazing job of bringing these kids up, both through athletics, but also making sure that they was headstrong and did what they had to do in school. And this is just now another step forward for him, being able to become a professional, playing this game we call football and love so much — a kid’s game.”
At the fanfest, Gabe asked what number he would wear. He wore No. 26 at Rice, the number his brother wore at Miami and for two years with Washington. But the fans started shouting, “Twenty-one! Twenty-one!” the number Sean wore in his final two seasons.
When he got the OK from Harris, he took No. 21 and the fans erupted.
“This is everything to me,” said Gabe, who had an interception last week to seal the Defenders’ victory over Columbus. “It’s definitely a reminder, especially with the Taylor name on the top. I can’t just half-ass everything. So it’s definitely a reminder, I have to put my best foot forward because I can mess up and people be like, ‘Oh, you suck,’ just like that. I can make everybody smile by making plays and then give it one play and it’s like, ‘Oh, this kid can’t play.’ So it’s like, this means everything. The legacy I feel like I have to carry, but it’s a definitely a reminder, it’s bigger than football.”
NFL Nation reporter John Keim contributed to this story.
