Jets’ Leonard Taylor III went undrafted to living out NFL dream with assist from mom
NY Post
It will be a text or a call that will arrive an hour or two before Jets rookie free agent defensive tackle Leonard Taylor III plays his first NFL game on the first Monday night of the season in San Francisco.
For the past two years, this self-proclaimed mama’s boy has received a motivational reminder from his mother, Chelita Smith.
“One quote that I always give him before his games is I always tell him, ‘The greatness of a man comes from within himself,’” she told The Post.
Just three months after he was spurned by the NFL draft, Taylor summoned his inner greatness in training camp and realized a boyhood dream that seemed inevitable as a five-star high school commit who stayed home to play at Miami (Fla.).
“I used to watch a lot of Lawrence Taylor growing up for real,” the Jets’ ”L.T.” told The Post. “Really ’cause me and him had the same number. When I was in Little League, I had No. 56. My stepdad [Rodney Frye], he told me one day to search up Lawrence Taylor and to watch how he played and all that. And then, I watched him play growing up and then just got glued to how he played and how he was able to move around and how fast he was able to get off the ball and all that … even though he was an outside linebacker, but he still was like disruptive in a lot of ways that I like. So try to tune in his game a little bit to mine.”
There is only one LT, of course. This L.T. is 6-foot-3, 305 pounds.
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