Kadie Smith
It really did seem to happen in slow motion.
It was back in July against the Alouettes at BC Place, with the Lions riding high on a dominant win over the Riders in Regina, that Eric Taylor got what he calls his “fifteen minutes of fame”. With Montreal lining up to punt, Khreem Smith got under and blocked Sean Whyte’s kick. Taylor was behind him when the ball bounced out of Smith’s hands. “I figured he was going to get it and I 
thought ‘ok; good’,” says Taylor. “I was caught off guard that Smitty [Khreem Smith] missed.”
Taylor picked up the loose ball, and rumbled it back for 19 yards to the Montreal 29 with the crowd, no doubt surprised, getting louder at each yard gained. “I had a pick-6 for 54 yards in college,” says Taylor, laughing that hearty laugh that you only hear when
you really know him. “I hadn’t touched a ball since then. I had to thank Smitty for my moment in the spotlight.”
But Eric Taylor is not a man who seeks the spotlight.
It’s a sunny day at Lions practice. Fresh off an important win at home over the REDBLACKS, the mood is light but determined. Taylor is stretched out on a couch in the player’s lounge, encompassing the entirety of one half. At ‘6”2 and 309 lbs., you don’t expect Taylor’s soft voice and quiet demeanour; you don’t expect him to be so pensive.
“I do joke around!” he exclaims, almost defensively. “I mean, I don’t want the quiet persona to make people think I don’t have fun. I pick and choose when to let people see that side of me.” That’s evident in the two big personalities, Smith and Khalif Mitchell, that Taylor names as his closest friends on the team.
Smith has been his roommate for the last three seasons. “Oh he’s definitely messier,” Taylor says with a chuckle. “We’re total opposites in the house though. He’s a great guy to just be around all the time. He’s a handful but I’m sure he thinks that about me as well.” There’s the chuckle again. You want to say Taylor is good natured; that would be the easiest definition of his character, but that seems too small a descriptor. There’s more to him than that.
After a standout college career at the University of Memphis, Taylor bounced around the NFL from Seattle to Tennessee and Minnesota before getting the call up to the CFL with the Eskimos in 2008. Head Coach Mike Benevides was the defensive coordinator when Taylor was brought over to BC as a free agent in 2011. The two have a special bond.
“Eric is one of the best pros I’ve ever been around,” said Benevides. “The guys care about him, he cares about them. I think he’s one of the best defensive tackles in our league. As a team leader and a man that comes to work every day, as a true professional, as a quality person, he makes us better.”
The Tennessee native won a Grey Cup with the Leos his first year and followed that up with marquee seasons, including a noteworthy 2013 season where he notched career-high numbers in tackles and sacks. He signed his first and only CFL extension with them in 2013. BC is his team.
He admits it was hard at first transitioning to the CFL, as it is for many import players with NFL ambitions. “I had to ask myself if this is really what I want to do,” remarks Taylor, nodding contemplatively. “Honestly it was just me having to let go. In Toronto, I relaxed and that’s when I started having fun. I haven’t looked back. Coming up from the States you don’t know what to expect and there’s a stigma for some guys, but once you realize just how good of a league it is, all that goes out the window.”
He’s happy, exactly where he wants to be in his career and his personal life, and it shows. There’s an air of quiet confidence about him. Perhaps that’s why his teammates voted unanimously this season to make him one of their captains, a role he doesn’t take lightly. “Leaders come in all different shapes and forms but for the guys to vote you a leader, it means a lot and you just have to keep their respect, says Taylor. “I’m somebody that’s not going to talk all the time when you don’t need to talk. You have some leaders that feel like they need to talk all the time. I feel like my demeanour and my play is enough to get people to follow in the direction you’re trying to get the team to go.”
“The leadership he shows and how he goes about his business every day speaks volumes,” seconded Benevides. “I think the men have seen that and I think that’s why they’ve voted him a captain. He does it with his actions.”
Taylor’s set to take another important role in his personal life as well. The recent father to twins, a boy and a girl, he smiles from ear to ear when anyone mentions it to him. You can almost detect a hint of a blush as he puts his head down. He says he’s ready for fatherhood; more ready for that than anything else. His father taught him well. And here’s where you get a glimpse into how he became the man that he is, how he developed into the poised leader that he is.
“My dad was my hero, of course, because he’s my dad, but also because of who he was as a person,” says Taylor of his father who passed away in 2010. He shifts his weight on the couch and leans forward with his head lowered. You can tell his father meant everything to him.
“I swear he worked from the age of three. He provided for me and my brothers and my mom. We weren’t the richest growing up but
I will never say we were poor. I always had a meal on the table, clothes on my back, roof over my head. He was that guy. He was home every night and that meant a lot to us growing up. You try to model yourself after somebody like that.”
After suffering a heart attack while Taylor was in college, his father was put on dialysis during his final days, but continued to support Taylor throughout his illness, travelling across the states while Taylor was moving around the NFL to come visit him and often having to do dialysis in multiple different hospitals. “It really struck me,” says Taylor. “Knowing that he had to do something like that at a different hospital in a whole different state and still do it and never once complain, that meant a lot to me.”
While his past has shaped the player and man he is today, this season will be full of opportunities and challenges both professionally and personally, “I’m exactly where I want to be,” he says.
The big man is ready, and if that fumble return is any indication, expect the unexpected.