Football
Jacksonville Jaguars legendary running back Fred Taylor has not been voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
This year served as the second time Taylor was a finalist and the sixth time he made it to the semifinalist stage.
Taylor was the only running back who is eligible in this year’s class to join the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Those who made the Hall of Fame this year are: Jared Allen, Eric Allen, Antonio Gates, and Sterling Sharpe.
The Jaguars selected Taylor with the No. 9 overall pick out of the University of Florida in the 1998 NFL Draft and went on to shatter franchise records in a career that spanned over a decade.
The Jaguars had their first-ever player inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2022 in former offensive tackle Tony Boselli, turning the full attention for the next Jaguars campaign to Taylor.
Taylor recorded 13,632 total yards and 70 touchdowns in his career, with the vast majority of those coming with Jacksonville. He is the all-time leading rusher in franchise history with 11,271 yards, more than 3,000 more than the back behind him. He ranks No. 17 in rushing yards all-time.
When it comes to his production during his career, which spanned from 1998 to 2010, Taylor marked most of the boxes. He ran for at least 1,000 yards in seven of his 13 seasons and scored 32 rushing touchdowns in his first three seasons alone.
Taylor will get more chances in the future, and it is at the very least a good sign that he was named one of 15 finalists. That alone is a huge honor and shows that eventually, Taylor may have a chance to break through the roadblocks in front of him and become the second Jaguars player to ever be named to the Hall of Fame.
Taylor’s omission from Canton is surely a disappointing one, but those who played against Taylor know what kind of player he was. We will see if the NFL’s Hall of Fame voters get it right with Taylor next year as he now has to continue to bide his time to enter football immortality.
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