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Fred Taylor on Being a HOF Finalist, Jaguars Must-Win vs. Panthers | Countdown to Kickoff · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Time for our weekly conversation with Pride of the Jaguars
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: running back Fred Taylor, or should I say Pro Football
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Hall of Fame finalist Fred Taylor. It's about time we
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: got into the room. Fred.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: How are you, JP?
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: I'm good man. I like to sound the finalist Freddy.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: Can we make that a thing? They tried to call
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: me fragile Freddie, that kind of war and that's worn off.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: I mean we're talking about thirteen years in you know,
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: they try to count me out. But now it's finalist
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Freddy and it sounds pretty good man. I'm good JP.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: How about yourself doing well?
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, finalist Freddy has a pretty good ring
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: to it. The next one would be gold jacket Fred.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: But hey, it's a process, right, and hey, this is
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: the next step in that process. I don't you've been
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: waiting a long time to take this step. So how
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: did you react when you finally found out and got
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: the news?
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right, JP, is certainly a process. It's the
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: next step.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: It puts us one step closer.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: My reaction was thank God.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: I just I was sort of overwhelmed with joy, but
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: I also and then I immediately prayed, immediately thank God,
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: you know, forgetting me to this moment. This is where
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: we said we wanted to be where they can at
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: least hear the case right, especially for people that hadn't
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: really seen me play, the people that operated outside of Jacksonville.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: So I felt great to answer that part of the question.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: I felt great about it, and then I had to
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: recompose myself, regained my composure because I understand the process.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: You know, I don't want to get too too excited,
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: but I am thankful for the moment. But also I know,
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: like Kobe Bryant said, the job's not done. The job's
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: not finished, so you know, still one more shot to
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: make the top five. And that list is you know,
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: you can say all of these guys are deserving, and
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: I think they are because they're on the finalist list.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: So when you're in that sort of elite category, you go,
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: how do you ax guys out? How do you decide
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: who to exclude and who to give that nod to,
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: especially when you're not a or you're not considered a
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: first ballot you know. So and then there's guys that's
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: been in the finalist room for years, so well the
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: first time finally jump those guys or will. They kind
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: of areas of a pecking order. So yeah, I just
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: try to keep things in perspective. So I kind of
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: bring that joy back down. But I'm excited. I'm certainly happy.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: A wise man once told me sometimes I think other
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: times I just don't know, And I think that applies
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: to the voting process and the whole You just don't know.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, they can get in the room.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: You're the only running back on the list, So if
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: it's time to get a running back, okay, well then
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: maybe you just don't know how it's gonna go. So
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: the reaction, though, You've always had the support of obviously
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Jaguar fans, but everybody seeing this news in the last
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: couple of days.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: What does that meant to you?
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: To get those responses on I know you're big on
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: social media and everything, and that's got to mean something
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: to you.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: It means a lot. You know, it's a bit overwhelming
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: because me what I said this time, unlike when I
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: do during the holidays or my birthday, I get tons
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: of text messages, you know, I wake up one hundred
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: two three hundred texts. I'm like, oh, I can't reply
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: to everybody, and I'm not a copy paste type of person.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: I like to be sincere and my responses.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: So for example, so when I woke up because I
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: fell asleep on the show, I was sleeping during the
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: announcement what was that Wednesday night NFL Network. But when
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: I woke up, I had tons of texts. I'm like,
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: I'm not in the mood to return these texts. It's
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: ten pm. You know, I got a lot of elderly
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: people on this line too. They might be sleep right now.
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: So the next day, so Yesterday, Thursday, when I was
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: flying up to Jersey, I ended up returning.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: So I ended up returning a lot.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: Of text messages the following day, and you know, one
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: side returned those messages.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: I said, Okay, I did a good job. And then
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: I started getting.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: More and more and more and more text like wow, okay,
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: this is a bit overwhelming again. And then a lot
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: of messages on Twitter, a lot of messages on Instagram.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: The Jaguar social media team, you know, they're putting up highlights,
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: They're putting up the fact that I was accepted, well,
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: the fact that I made Top fifteen finalists, and it's
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: just a lot of people are tagging my page and
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: saying congrats, you deserve it.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: You deserve it.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: Well, the other guys deserve it too, But no, I'm
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: thankful JP man.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: It's just.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: I guess, you know, I guess if you talk to
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: Andy right now. My wife, she wus saying I get
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: this way during my birthdays. I get this way during
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Christmas because I've always been a giver. I've always been
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: the one to take care of people, and now it
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: seems that when it's time for me to be taken
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: care of, I really don't know how to respond, you
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: know what I'm saying. So, you know, whatever the case is,
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: I'm thankful, and I'm appreciative of all of the congratulations that
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: people have been texting, tweeting, or even commenting on Instagram.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: So I'm just overwhelmed with things.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Gratitude absolutely, and it's well said. Fred Taylor is with us,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: proud of the Jaguars running back. Let's get to this
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Panthers Jaguars matchup game skinned for the Jags, but Fred,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: they can clinch the division today with a win over
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the Panthers and the Colts and Texans loss. All those
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: games were at one o'clock on Sunday, so you could
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: be handing out hats and t shirts by the end
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: of the day, or it could go the other way
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: and you could be behind the eight ball in the
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: division and only looking at a wild card next week.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is how razor thin this is right now?
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's pretty thin, you know.
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: But even with all of that stuff, the one leading
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: theme is Jacksonville. It's always been about Jacksonville, you know.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: It's always been about the Jaguars. Even in the four
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: game Slit Scared, It's always been about them. Today is
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: no different. You have an underachieving, very much underwhelming, underachieving
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: Canters team, Panthers team, and you would say, all right,
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: you should beat them. They're two and thirteen, you should
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: beat this team. But it doesn't work that way. You know,
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: Jacksonville can't just limp out there because they're dealing with
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: a lot of injuries. You got one at the QB position,
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: you know, you got the receivers banged up, you got
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: defensive players banged up. This injuries all over the place.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: You're not running the ball well, you've been exposed seemingly
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: on defense when you can't get after the quarterback. So
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: it's not going to be just a walk in the park.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: But it is going to always be about Jacksonville and
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: how they handle business. So they have to play mistake
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: free football. They have to play with a sense of urgency.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: The offense has to find a way to stay consistent,
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: consistency and try to give the defense some life the defense.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: I was told that my play excites the defense. When
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: I was out there, when I made big runs, it
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: excited the guys and it made them want to go
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: out there and play even harder, you know. So we
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: have to find a way to excite those guys, and
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: that comes by way of big plays and playing smash
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: mouth football. Giving Travis et in the rock, you know,
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: throwing a DJ out there, Johnson throwing a little bit
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: of tank out there. Whatever it is, protect Trevor, run
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: the football, walk away with the victory.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Red Taylor with us. Is it It's week seventeen and
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: we're talking about urgency?
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Is that bad?
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, can you find it this late? If you
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: don't have it now, can you find it?
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: You know? It's it's it's it's not bad because it's
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: a week to week thing.
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: A year ago, you know, we were we were the
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: team was in this position minus the slide.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: They were ascended and everybody.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: Was like, all right, we're gonna are we gonna make
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: the playoffs, We're gonna make the playoffs, and the excitement
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: was in the air. They gotta find a way to
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: recreate that through urgency. A year ago is the same
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: sense of urgency that they needed to ascend to the
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: next round, which is the playoffs. So now you have
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: to find a way to get off this roller coaster.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: You gotta get off the roller colder is going. It's
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: a steep decline, not just a decline, but it's a
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: very steep decline. You gotta find a way to kind
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: of been that thing backed up and you know, reassend
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: yourself and find some momentum because the league, the league
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: hasn't changed much. It's changed a lot, but the foundation
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: is always gonna be one of the foundations. Always going
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: to be teams that get hot at the right time.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: Those are the teams you gotta look out for. It's
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: not too late for this team. You know, they did
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: it a year ago. Maybe the five game stretch could
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: be these two plus whatever they need to get to
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: the super Bowl, And let's hope that's the case. Because
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: they found a way to be magical last year and
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: that came by way of sin suburgency. So it's not
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: too late until it's too late, meaning once you're eliminated,
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: it's too late and you have to find out what
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: you're gonna do in the offseason.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: The clock is still ticking, but it's getting close to
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: the end, so they better get something going now. Last
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: home game today, the Panthers and the Jaguars, and Fred
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: will talk to you in the post game.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: Appreciated as always, I'll see j P. Always a pleasure.