"Fragile" Fred
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He’s “soft,” he’s “fragile,” he’s “injury prone,” and he is my favorite player in the NFL. I bring you, Fred Taylor.
How does someone who was born and raised in New York City and who spent seven years going to school in New England become a Fred Taylor fan? One word: Madden. Madden 2000 for the N-64 was a phenomenal game, and it helped introduce me to the man you critics call “Glass Taylor.” When choosing a Madden team for season long competition, I look for three key components: wideouts to run go patterns with, a relatively mobile quarterback, and a 90% pass-oriented playbook. Let’s be honest, you can throw eight yard outs, run the ball ten times and score, but that’s not nearly as fun or demoralizing to your opponent (in this case the Fleafounder) as throwing a 50-yard bomb. The Jacksonville Jaguars were the perfect team for me. Jimmy Smith and Keenan McCardell were arguably the best 1-2 wide-out tandem in the league, Mark Brunell was still in his prime and could glide around the pocket, and the playbook had more 3 and 4 wide-out sets than I knew what to do with. (Now remember Madden 2000 comes out just before the 1999 season, and it is really based on the 1998 team and player performances. To this day, I cannot fathom why this has to be so confusing. I mean the game comes out in August before the start of the season—why can’t the year and season coincide.) This Jaguar team also featured 2nd year running back, Freddy Taylor, who was coming off a 1998 rookie season where he rushed for 1,223 yards.
Oddly enough, I realized that if I attended fewer classes, I would have more time to play Madden. As the Madden games progressed, the Fleafounder and I mastered each other’s tendencies. Smith was seeing triple teams, and I could no longer consistently complete my bread-and-butter play. (Trips on the right side with no name Alvis Whitted running a post between Smith and McCardell). I was forced to turn to my running game. Enter #28. He was your ideal running back—great burst of speed and the ability to almost always break the first tackle. Not to mention, no running back in Madden pulled off the ”R button-Bottom C combo” with more flair than Freddy. For those of you unfamiliar with Nintendo 64, first off, shame on you, and secondly, the aforementioned combo refers to a right juke immediately into a spin move, which was devastating to hopeless defensive backs. In a matter of weeks, I had developed a full blown man crush on Freddy, and I have been adamantly defending his honor ever since.
As stated earlier, Taylor entered the league with a bang, rushing for over 1,200 yards and averaging 4.6 yards/carry in his first year. But since that year, “Glass Taylor” has been dealing with “injury prone” labels and clever nicknames for the rest of his career. To be fair, these nicknames and labels seemed to be dead-on-balls accurate. “Fragile Fred” suffered from a slew of injuries between 1999 and 2001, which caused him to miss 23 out of 48 regular season games during that stretch. In 1999, there were a series of hamstring injuries. In 2000, Taylor had knee troubles to begin the season. However, he finished 2000 playing in the last 13 games of the season and rushing for 1,399 yards, giving fans like me optimism for the future. Then, along came that miserable day in September of 2001, when Freddy shattered both his groin and my fantasy football season in one play. More leg troubles for Fred. No one was busier between 1999-2001 than the Jacksonville trainer personally assigned to Freddy’s undercarriage region. Once he tore his groin, the injury prone stigma became permanent, and I was the lone camper at Camp Fred.
But now, nearly six years since Freddy tore his manhood, “we” are ready to challenge all of the nay-sayers, as “we” make our charge toward Canton. That’s right, Canton, Ohio, current home of the Hall of Fame and future home of Freddy’s retired jersey. (I just re-read that last sentence and I am not sure I am prepared to defend such wildly optimistic comments). Since the 2001 season, Taylor has played in 72 of a possible 80 games. During those five seasons, Taylor has rushed for over 6,000 yards. In just this past season, Taylor was able to rush for over 1,100 yards at 5.0 yards/carry. Currently, he is 487 yards short of the 10,000-yard historic milestone for running backs.
Taylor’s other impressive credentials include:
- 90-yard postseason touchdown run
- In 2000, Taylor recorded nine consecutive 100-yard games, which is the third longest streak ever behind Barry Sanders (14) and Marcus Allen (11).
- Also in November 2000, Freddy rushed for 234 yards against the Steelers, which remains the highest single games rushing performance at Three Rivers Stadium.
- His 4.6 career yards/carry average is fifth all-time behind Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, O.J. Simpson, and Tiki Barber.
- His 85.5 rushing yards per game average is 6th all-time behind Brown, Sanders, Edgerrin James, Roger Craig, and Walter Payton
- In 1996, he led Florida to a National Championship.
Taylor just signed a new three year deal with Jacksonville in the offseason, likely making him a Jaguar through the 2009 season. Freddy has been with the Jaguars for his entire career, which is a rarity in today’s world of free agency and salary caps. Unlike some of his fellow colleagues, Taylor stays out of the National Felony League headlines. So as Fred enters the last three years of his career, take a moment and appreciate one of the best running backs of our time. Come week 5 of 6 of this season, crack a smile or have a drink and think of me when Freddy reaches that elusive 10,000-yard milestone and is hopefully inducted into the Hall of Fame. (OR laugh out loud, post several comments, and imagine me 10 shots deep after “Fragile Fred” suffers a sports hernia during game 1 or is arrested for an underground cock fighting ring). Either way, #28 has had an entertaining career, and I will continue to enjoy defending his honor.
-Golden Boy at FleaFanatics
