The Booing Of Jason Taylor

There will be an awful lot of fans come Sunday that will have a few choice words for those fans that boo Jason Taylor as he comes onto the field. There will be even more fans that simply won’t care what others think and will instead, boo louder. Jason Taylor returns home on Sunday for the first time after he jilted the Miami Dolphins or, depending on your side of the fence, the Dolphins jilted him.

In a tele-conference with South Florida media, the former Phin told reporters that had Bill Parcells left the team six months ago, he would be a Miami Dolphin, sort of. “I think that horse is already dead,” Taylor said as reported in the Miami Herald. “If you had to hold my hand over the fire and forced me to give you an answer I would have to say yes.”

For all the good Jason did as a Miami Dolphin DE for over a decade, his decision to head north to one of Miami’s biggest rivals has brought about bitterness and fan infighting.  Case in point, you will probably not have to look any further than the comments that will be left at the bottom of this article.  Say something negative about Jason Taylor and you will get support from one side and anger from the other.

Taylor, depending on who you believe chose to sign with the NY Jets prior to the NFL draft rather than wait for the Dolphins to sign him after the draft.  The story goes something close to this.  Jason wanted to sign a deal to stay in Miami, the Dolphins Jeff Ireland asked him to wait until after the draft, Taylor said he would, then Bill Parcells informed Taylor that he didn’t want to go through Taylor’s agent and deal with the player himself, Gary Wichard, Taylor’s agent got mad, he encouraged Jason to not wait until after the draft, Jason told the team he wasn’t going to wait, the team said fine we are, Jason went to NY, Jason signed with the Jets….and (Exhaling loudly) Jason wears Green.  (The entire run-on of the last sentence was on purpose).

So, while Jason’s brother-in-law, Zach Thomas, chose the Dallas Cowboys over the New England Patriots 3 years ago saying that he couldn’t play for  a team that he spent his career hating, Jason Taylor apparently could have cared less.

So come Sunday, the Dolphins will be wearing orange on the field, they want their fans to wear orange off the field, and when Jason Taylor takes the field the stadium will sound an awful lot like one of Whitney Houston’s current concerts.  A loud thumping of boos should echo quite nicely across the stadium turf.

Jason Taylor says he doesn’t know what kind of reception he will get on Sunday night.

"“I have no idea to be honest,” Taylor said. ” I would expect because I play for the Jets, they won’t be very happy. It’s their home opener and they’re Dolphins fans so I would expect … oh, hell, maybe I hope it’s just mixed. Whatever. Obviously everyone wants to be cheered but I understand I’m the road team and the bitter rival so I wouldn’t be surprised to hear boos.” – From the Miami Herald"

Taylor wouldn’t be surprised?  Taylor should expect nothing short of boos.  In fact, what he should be surprised about is if he can actually hear those in the stands that are cheering for him.  Taylor doesn’t realize that this is a very touchy subject in Miami.  Regardless of the Dolphins win/loss record, many fans still believe that Taylor made a huge mistake in going to the Jets.  That feeling was not swayed when Jason talked about the differences between the Dolphins and the Jets during training camp and spoke glowingly of the Jets organization when compared to Miami.  To be fair to Taylor, he was put on the spot and you can’t openly dis your new team.  It’s unprofessional.

But will fans forgive it come Sunday night?

I doubt it and Taylor should “expect” to hear everything that will be thrown his way…and it could be ugly.  At least he isn’t Lebron James who will have to go back to Cleveland.