Gabe Taylor was six when his brother, Sean, died at 24. Now 24, Gabe Taylor is a day away from playing his first home game as a member of the D.C. Defenders.
Via Todd Archer of ESPN, the younger brother of Washington great Sean Taylor plays defensive back for the local UFL team. Like Sean did, Gabe Taylor wears No. 21.
Gabe didn’t play football until his senior year in high school. He had 11 interceptions and six pick-sixes in his only season at Gulliver Prep in Miami, where the field is now named for Sean Taylor.
After playing college football at Rice, Gabe Taylor wasn’t drafted in 2025. He had a tryout at the Commanders’ rookie minicamp, but there were no NFL offers.
Enter the UFL.
“I’ll tell you this, if he was two inches taller, he wouldn’t be playing in our league right now, for sure,” Defenders coach Shannon Harris told Archer. “He’d definitely be playing in the NFL. But Gabe, man, the kid is very smart. You can see the football pedigree there. He’s another guy that flies around. He’s sticky in coverage. He does a great job getting his hands on the ball, lot of pass deflections.”
Last week, Gabe Taylor sealed a win over the Columbus Aviators with an interception.
“This is everything to me,” Gabe Taylor told Archer. “It’s definitely a reminder, especially with the Taylor name on the top. I can’t just half-ass everything. So it’s definitely a reminder, I have to put my best foot forward because I can mess up and people be like, ‘Oh, you suck,’ just like that. I can make everybody smile by making plays and then give it one play and it’s like, ‘Oh, this kid can’t play.’ So it’s like, this means everything. The legacy I feel like I have to carry, but it’s definitely a reminder, it’s bigger than football.”
And, frankly, this is the kind of story the UFL needs, if it hopes to become bigger than it currently is. For D.C. fans on Saturday, the home debut of Sean Taylor’s brother will make it a very big game at Audi Field.