Tyrod Taylor doesn’t need 15 minutes of fame

Tyrod Taylor was on the tip of all football fan’s tongues on Monday Night Football. But he’s been here before. Where have you been?

Tyrod Taylor traded jerseys with Kam Chancellor after his Bills lost to Chancellor’s Seahawks on Monday Night Football. Taylor and Chancellor were teammates at Virginia Tech from 2007-09. They both know a thing or two about that age-old theory: you know, the infamous fifteen minutes of fame?

Taylor experienced, almost literally, 15 minutes on top of the universe on Monday night. If you are linked into the sports world and were on Twitter at all during the fourth quarter of that game, praises of Taylor were raining. Even during the ESPN broadcast, play-by-play man Sean McDonough couldn’t resist. As The Buffalo News recounted: “With 69 seconds left in the game, McDonough noted that Taylor backed up Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco, who won a Super Bowl, for four seasons and added: “If you asked people in the league who they’d rather have – Flacco or Taylor – that would be a very tough choice right now.”

To be completely transparent: I decided to write about Tyrod Taylor within those 69 seconds.

But then 69 seconds later, Taylor couldn’t find the end zone for the Bills as time ran out. His team lost, 31-25, in Seattle. And so, the way this system works: Taylor is not hyped the way he was 69 seconds before the score was final and his week to follow has probably been a little less glitzy. When in reality, the Seahawks defense is still the Seahawks defense and Taylor has performed very well this season. He was pretty damn good last season too.

In 2015, Taylor threw for 3,035 yards, 20 touchdowns and six interceptions in 14 games. From 2011-14 with the Ravens, Taylor played in 14 total games and did not throw a touchdown.

He performed very well at Virginia Tech. His peers respect him and recognize his talent and have for a long while.

Statistics are statistics: numbers that people will use to validate or decimate you, regardless of if those numbers are being viewed correctly or in context. The thing with Taylor, though, is when you watch him, you are entertained. And that’s always been the key to popularity—entertain us! 

About a year ago, Taylor was on air with ESPN’s Lindsay Czarniak. He told the world, or whoever was watching, three things that people probably don’t know about him.

“I don’t eat beef or pork,” he told the camera, “and that’s something that people don’t know about me. … I’m an only child. I think people learned that, recently. But I don’t think I act like one. Most only-children, or only-child, are probably spoiled but I’m not spoiled.

“You can tell when some people are only children. They act a certain way, and I don’t think I act that way. … (And) I swallowed a quarter once when I was little.”

Czarniak stops him. “Wait, how’d you swallow a quarter?”

Taylor scratches his head. “Just being a kid. Playing around. Throwing it up in the air.”

Probably a safe bet that back then, when Taylor was seven years old and swallowed a quarter, he had his 15 minutes of fame among his friends and elementary school classmates. And now? As a 27-year-old starting NFL quarterback finding his rhythm, what’s he doing?

Just being a kid. Playing around. Throwing it up in the air. No biggie.

So watch him or don’t, he’s still going to be out there thriving in what he loves. It’s not like he needs your attention to succeed—he’s been here (and he’s not into that spoiled only-child stuff anyway). He has a Super Bowl ring. And oh yeah, he’s boys with Allen Iverson.

In his words, though, he isn’t necessarily satisfied.

“To be one of the best — if not thebest — to play this game,” Taylor said, cited here by ESPN. “I think, with my skill set, if I maximize the potential that I have, I can definitely be remembered as one of the best this league has had.”

Show us, Tyrod. Throw that quarter in the air. It’s all a matter of heads or tails.