Jason Taylor won’t need any help getting pumped up for Sunday’s AFC Championship at Pittsburgh.
“Mike Pettine said to me [yesterday] on the practice field to make sure you don’t drink any of that [junk] you guys drink before the games and get all fired up,” Taylor said, “because I’m sure you’ll be hyped up enough — going back home and playing for a chance to go to the Super Bowl and all that.”
The Jets’ third-oldest player behind 40-year-old backup quarterback Mark Brunell and 39-year-old fullback Tony Richardson, Taylor, 36 and a Pittsburgh native, faces the Steelers trying to reach the Super Bowl for the first time in his 14-season career in what likely will be his final season.
That means Taylor’s first conference championship game could be the final game of his career if the Jets lose.
“Fourteen years to get to where we are today,” Taylor said, pausing, “is a long time.”
Taylor was back at practice after missing Wednesday’s session with a concussion. He insisted he’s fine and is psyched to return home for a game of this magnitude.
Taylor was not only born in Pittsburgh, but he played his high school ball there, at Woodland Hills High School. He was a rabid Steelers fan as a kid.
“[I] idolized that team and those players,” Taylor said.
“You grow up in a city like that, you can’t help but be a Steeler fan, and to go back to where it all started at a long time ago when I was 16 years old is pretty cool.”
In his first season in New York, Taylor — who played the 11 seasons of his career with the Dolphins before a one-year sojourn in Washington and a return to Miami for the 2009 season — had five sacks and two forced fumbles for the Jets this season. He also forced a critical safety against the Steelers in Week 15 (a 22-17 Jets win) when he took down running back Mewelde Moore in the end zone.
Now he’ll try to take down Moore and his teammates to get a shot at the preeminent NFL prize.
“This is the ultimate team game. That’s what you want. You want the [Super Bowl] ring,” Taylor said. “All the other things are great — the Pro Bowls and all that [junk] is fine. But if you’re not winning as a team and getting a chance to be a champion, it’s not worth it.
“Anybody that’s interested I’ll tell them about [getting to this point] and let them know that this is not a right. This is something you earn. It’s a privilege. It’s an honor. And don’t take it for granted but definitely take advantage of it.”