HE PLAYS FOR SEAN

IT'S BEEN NEARLY 15 YEARS SINCE STAR WASHINGTON SAFETY SEAN TAYLOR'S DEATH. NOW, GABRIEL TAYLOR IS DOING ALL HE CAN TO HONOR HIS BROTHER'S FOOTBALL LEGACY, WHILE TRYING TO CREATE ONE OF HIS OWN

- ALEX PREWITT

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. He would slap its burgundy shell, crouch into a ready stance and wiggle his fingers, eager to pounce. Just walking around the house, acting like him,” Gabriel says. Getting into that mode, that mindset... where he did his thing.”

Almost 15 years have passed since Sean Taylor was killed by a burglar at age 24, on Nov. 27, 2007, in the middle of his fourth NFL season with Washington. In that time, his little brother has never shied away from the shadow Sean left behind. Growing up, Gabriel played on a Miami-area youth football team that honored Sean by putting his name on the back of every player’s jersey. In high school, at nearby Gulliver Prep, he competed on Sean Taylor Memorial Field. And today, as a third-year sophomore at Rice, he proudly wears Sean’s college number, 26, while manning the same safety position.

Gabriel keeps his late brother close to him on campus in Houston: He sleeps with a souvenir towel hanging over his headboard, from the day Washington retired Sean’s jersey, and before departing for every game he taps a decal of Sean’s smiling face on the wall. Then I do this,” the younger Taylor says, curling his thumb and ring fingers while straightening the other three to form Sean’s NFL number, 21. Then I walk out.”