Philadelphia Eagles legend Bobby Taylor returns to discuss his passion for the game of flag football and tells Nestor about an NFL Flag-In-School Coach of The Year program designed to reward teachers in communities around America.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
play, nfl, baseball, flag football, football, flag, game, year, sport, week, ravens, bobby, coaches, team, phillies, youth, teachers, philly, running, kids
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Bobby Taylor
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome back wn S T, Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive celebrating 25 years of all of this madness around here out online with our friends at curio wellness and foreign daughter. We will be getting back to that a little bit later on. We’re going to be counting down 2322 21 Now that the Orioles are eliminated also doing the Maryland crab cake Tour presented by our friends at the Maryland lottery got my truck city shirt on we did it there from my birthday on Friday. You can catch my son as well as Luke Jones. Oh my dear science teacher George Schulman telling some some jokes as well as some baseball stuff as we prepare for the ravens and the Detroit Lions this week. Well, football here on the field and off the field. This guy did it on the field for a long time in Philadelphia where they’re still playing baseball. And he’s from Houston where they’re still playing baseball but he’s here to talk about football. And he comes on once twice a year to talk about the NFL flag in schools Coach of the Year Award Gen youth and NFL flags in schools program. We welcome back all Pro and NFL legend Bobby Taylor on you know, the Orioles are out but we’re just we’re bumming around here but you got all of this baseball going on in your towns, right?
Bobby Taylor 01:11
Yeah, Phillies and Astros and so, you know, obviously those two played each other last year and World Series and you know, hopefully, both teams can keep on doing it. It’s been exciting. I was going back and forth between the Thursday night football game, and the Phillies Braves game yesterday. And so to see them the end, the way that they did at home in front of those crazy fans. I mean, I’ve missed that. I mean, the fans Listen, sometimes the fans can get a bad rap in Philly, but I mean, I just missed that excitement, that passion that how electric it is. I mean, just watching it on TV. It just seemed insane. Where do you live these days? You’d Houston area? Yes, sir. Right outside of Houston.
Nestor Aparicio 01:56
It is amazing how baseball has sort of taken over that town. I was down there to see Springsteen a couple months ago. And just I’m an oiler fan. So I had Dan Passerini on recently, we open the season. We played the Texans here. So you know I had I had them on. But just to see a town get taken over a little bit here with baseball with Adam. We got a lot of baseball, Brooks Robinson, Cal Ripken all that here. But Houston was always sort of, you know, a football place college football places. You know, let’s talk about what you’re here to promote. And Jen youth and flag football because I want to let you talk about it. Honestly, you played the game, you had the injuries, you did all of that stuff. But in in your retirement, you become very involved with this with your family as well, right?
Bobby Taylor 02:36
Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, all of my boys play flag football right now. And so this is the third year I’m here representing Gen youth, along with the support of the NFL Foundation. And so we just want to honor coaches, PE teachers, whether in school or in the communities because we know that they’re unsung heroes. You know, I’ve had, for example, I had teachers, I’m sorry, coaches, that were my teachers, which may have taught me math, science, but also my coaches as well. So they were they were doing double duty. And so you know, a lot of times these coaches and teachers, they spend more time with, you know, our kids than we do during the week. And so they should be honored, we should cherish them. Unfortunately, they are on song. But you know, organizations like Jin youth, they’re doing a great job when it comes to putting the spotlight on them. And so I’m just happy to walk that journey along to celebrate them, especially during this time a year, I think is needed. Folks can go to flag dot Gen youth now.org flag dot Gen youth now.org applications are open until November 8. And we’ll be making announcements shortly after that on the winners. And so I’m just happy about this flag is exploding all over the place. Hopefully it becomes an Olympic sport. Here soon we should be getting an announcement with that as well. And so I’m just looking forward to it. And thanks for having me again. It’s always
Nestor Aparicio 04:12
it’s always pleasure to have you on and I would just say this for flag football. Maybe we don’t talk about it enough. And you know, I did 27 Super Bowl radio rows all these years and back in the 90s. And every year and a lot of these guys are gone now they’re dead right? They will come on whether it was Deacon Jones or whether these guys legends of the game Conrad Dopler kind of guys that talked about how tough the game was. And look, man, I was a kid growing up loving the Oilers probably same as you. You’re 49 I turned 55 this week. And I have guys of your era or of my era my age who played in the for the Ravens in the 90s who I’ve known, wrote a book on that championship team bullies Baltimore all that stuff all these years ago with Brian Billick, and you know, I’m seeing players having head trauma. I’m seeing players. When I see them they’re hunched over For a little bit there my age, I also see guys, Peter Paul wears a great example got in shape. He had knee problems early on in his career, always, he was always playing hurt. He’s 50 pounds later, you’d never know he played football, you look, he walks the earth like a normal guy. And you always sorted that as a quarterback. But unless these big linemen, sometimes they go the wrong way. Sometimes they don’t. But more than that, the amount of abuse your body takes, and I see these NFL players they and the way that they’ve legislated some of the violence out of the game, but not all the violence. And they’ve always come to me and talked about look at this helmet, look at this shoulder pad and all that flag football, right. I mean, it was always sort of there. I played it as a kid, I remember trying to it was a hell of a thing, trying to grab a guy by the hips and grab that damn flag. I could never do it. But now you’re more of a sort of an apostle for football. I love football, but you want kids to play? Like, talk to me about your journey on that? Because I mean, you played the game on that concrete up Philly, Bobby, you know?
Bobby Taylor 05:57
Yeah, well, first of all, I mean, I still love football, I think is great. I think it’s the greatest sport in the world. But I think also the NFL is did it, they’ve did a great job when it comes to just trying to put players in better positions to prevent them from getting unnecessary risk, when you think about all of the rules that are in place, taking the head off trying to take the head out of the game, and just focusing on different things like that. And flag is just another entry point for whether that’s a male that wants to play our females as well. Because when you think about what’s happening in the female flag space, we have universities now that are giving these young ladies scholarships to go on, and go to school. And I just think that’s phenomenal. And hopefully more and more universities and colleges will come on board because we all we also wanted to become a national championship sport, as well. And so a lot of those life lessons you can learn from playing the game of football, you get them from playing the game of flag football, as well. And a lot of those, I still use, you know, to this day, and I’m pretty sure you do as well, when you think about you know, hard work, you know, learning how to win learning how to lose being a good teammate, like all of those different things. And so to be a part of something like this, because everyone is not going to make it to the NFL, we all know that we know the puzzle, we know the percentages, and things of that nature. But it just gives males and females another entry point to play the greatest sport in the world where they can become lifelong football fans, because, you know, some of the greatest fans in the world I know are female, they aren’t necessarily male, you know, isn’t and, and to be able to see that. And when I go out to some of these tournaments and watch some of the games, they’re so athletic, and a lot of times, especially at younger ages, the girls, they’re out there running circles around the boys,
Nestor Aparicio 08:05
what’s the rules on contact? I mean, I’m not as familiar with flag as I need to be. But I got to Luke, Luke, my partner has a, you know, a child, niece. Now she’s getting to be that age kick a soccer ball around a little bit 456 years old, running around a little bit. What’s the entry point for playing flag? What’s the age? And what what would you say to a parent of a 5678 year old and saying, look, they don’t have to play tight, we could play noncontact but but learn the values of the sport and have fun play in the sport, without head trauma without tackling without broken legs, hopefully, maybe blown ACLs and knee can’t say with that with with running and planting. But something that is is non context. I know a lot of kids are worried about soccer and head heading the ball and, and I mean, we all our heads our most important thing, you know, that’s the thing that I would worry about. If my son played football for Perry Hall, back in the 90s, my son’s 39. Now, if he had a son or a daughter, I might not be real hip on on head trauma. I knowing what I know about it now.
Bobby Taylor 09:11
Yeah, so it’s all regulated noncontact you can go out there, you get great exercise, you play in some great venue. I mean, for example, you could go and play in at some of these practice facilities of some of these NFL clubs. I mean, we have the NFL flag national championships that take place during the same time as the Pro Bowl, which will be in Orlando this year.
Nestor Aparicio 09:35
But last time I had you on you were like running around the tournaments and stuff with your kids, right. So
Bobby Taylor 09:39
yeah, so it’s like, cool, and you get to wear like our authentic NFL branded uniforms. And I just think that’s cool because you know, you look good, you feel good. You play good. You’re playing the best sport in the world. I’m
Nestor Aparicio 09:56
wearing a Steeler uniform. It’s fine with me. You know?
Bobby Taylor 09:59
You Yeah, yeah, hopefully most of most folks will want to, you know, play with the Eagles. But, you know, we allow coaches and teams to choose in a lot of times, especially being here in Texas, you know, it’s a struggle between whether it’s the Cowboys, whether it’s the Houston Texans or what have you. But, I mean, I just think it’s a great sport to play that’s being embraced by not only people in our country, but outside of our country as well. For example, I was able to attend the World Games in Birmingham over a year ago. And the when the women played it was the Mexico team versus the United States team. And unfortunately, the our ladies didn’t win. It was the Mexico team that won. And fortunately, our men won the championship, I think it was against France. So just to see that too, to represent your country. And hopefully, the IOC soon, we’ll be making an announcement that flag football will become an official sport for the 2028 Olympic Summer Olympics in LA. And how cool would that be? I mean, I know if I was still active, I will want to, you know, test my luck to try to be able to do that to be able to represent my country, because when I think about basketball, and you know, all of the great basketball players talked about how representing their country was just so special, as opposed to playing in the NBA and things of that nature. And so to be able to do that at some point, I think that will just be so cool like something that would be on a bucket list.
Nestor Aparicio 11:34
We don’t usually invite Philadelphia Eagles on the program. We make an exception sometimes bolding or I’ll have him once in a while Bob Taylor, we let him on as well. From down in Houston, Texas. He’s here to talk about the the Coach of the Year and NFL flags in school Coach of the Year award. You can visit flag dot Jen youth now.org That’s flag dot Gen youth now.org to nominate your favorite coaches and PE teachers did shucks I had George Scholten out for my drug city crabcake tour this week. He was our science teacher but also the baseball coach at Dundalk high when we won the state championship in 1983. I might remind everybody out there all those Chesapeake enrolled okay, you’re 40 years later you still crushing the bat, you know that Bobby, you know, for me with with flag football, and you know, dare I say sort of the bastardization of sport, whatever it would be baseball, turning the softball turning to, we used to play you know, pitchers handout baseball and wall ball. And then you play rundown and baseball, space basketball. I mean, we play three on three horse, there’s tournaments for all this stuff. Now three on three major tournaments, move the rim up, move the rim down all of that. Football is one of those things that like, like football, sort of, as I said, always been there. But to get more organized, and it’s something how in the world would anybody ever get a flag off? Lamar Jackson? I mean, honestly, like he would be the greatest flag football player in the history of the world. Right.
Bobby Taylor 13:00
I think about Lamar plan. I mean, just think about Tyreke Hill plan, flag football. I mean, how are Philly white
Nestor Aparicio 13:08
shoes Johnson back in the day, you know what I mean? Absolutely. wouldn’t matter anymore. wouldn’t matter how big and strong they are, it would matter how agile they are. Right?
Bobby Taylor 13:21
It’s a skill set that you would have to work to try to develop if you already didn’t have it naturally. And so, just to see the athleticism, you know, and I know I keep talking about the ladies to see how impressive they are when they’re out there on the field and how excited they are to be able to play the sport and it’s really not a step down like playing flag football. It’s not a step down for playing football. Listening to NFL is the NFL. And it takes a blessing in a special person to be able to get to that level. But flag football is it’s it’s its own thing. And it’s really more so an extension of football when you think about the skill that it takes the ball placement from a precision standpoint from the the quarterbacks and they are obviously plays on a little smaller field. But to go to a game, my first time I was blown away when I say I was so excited. I mean, I had goose bumps on my home, I started to sweat a little bit. I was like, Man, I mean, I need to settle down just a little bit and but it was just because of the excitement to see the skill level at that. At that point for me. I mean, I was hooked.
Nestor Aparicio 14:34
Bobby Taylor is here. He will be out there supporting all things genyouth and NFL flag in schools. He comes by to talk about the coach of the year you know, at some point, you know this The Eagles this year and the Ravens this year and how this is the game has changed, right? Just when you see the game the way you played it as a cornerback. I mean like we have Kyle Hamilton here we draft in the first round. It’s the safeties the linebackers he cornerback, he’s a piece. He’s a moving piece. On the back side of some teams played seven, eight deep, that a guy like you the way you played the game and the size you were, you know up a different kind of player now when you
Bobby Taylor 15:15
are you know, listen, these guys are so athletic. They’re so fast, they’re stronger. Seems like they’re bigger. And you know, I just admired them. I mean, I know a lot of times you get some of the old older guys, you know, saying, Well, these guys they couldn’t play when I played and blah, blah, blah, I listen, I just embrace it. Just because the evolution, it has to happen just with time in general. And so just to see these guys put on on their athleticism on display week in and week out offensively defensively. I mean, it’s just phenomenal to watch. And so you know, I’m still I still feel like football is the greatest sport on Earth. And to see the expansion not only here in the States, but you know, you think about the games that have just been played played. This would be the third game that it’d be played in London in a row, Jacksonville, they for the first time they played two games overseas in the same season. You know, Germany
Nestor Aparicio 16:20
and a couple of weeks Colton the Patriots are gonna take me home country roads again. So that’d be good. Yeah, two
Bobby Taylor 16:26
games in Germany. And so just that experience of where the game has gone. I just think you know, that everybody that are some of the decision makers up in the NFL offices did a great job and it’s just fun to watch. I’m a big fan.
Nestor Aparicio 16:42
Bobby take care of yourself. It’s always good to have you on at some point the Eagles and the Ravens will poke each other next season. I will I’ll track you down. We’ll talk some some flag football. I want to get everybody out to the website to get the information that you need. It is Gen youth and the NFL in schools program to launch the NFL in schools Coach of the Year Award, go to flag dot Gen youth now.org to nominate your favorite coaches and PE teachers. Very, very important. And I think it’s a good week that I had George Schulman on to talk a little bit about life as a teacher and as a coach and I listened today I met Marvin Lewis 1996 When the Ravens moved here. He brought me out and he and Jim Schwartz taught me football. Every Friday I pack a lunch sit in their office, we watch, watch football together and Margaret’s like, I’m not a coach. I’m just a teacher. I’m just the teacher. That’s all it is, you know so. So it’s always good to get the education. Pleasure to have you on nothing but bad. Thanks for the Houston Astros. I’ll say that so I’m Phillies all the way. I’ll support the other side. I’ll support the baseball side. But you know Rangers in and I you know, we’re still working up here, Bobby, we’re hurting from the baseball.
Bobby Taylor 17:48
Listen better, better luck next year.
Nestor Aparicio 17:52
They cheat down there and Houston at baseball. I know they do. Bobby Taylor joining us here for Philadelphia. I am Nestor we are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore. Positive. Stay with us.
Bobby Taylor 18:05
Thanks for having me.
