DENVER—Charrod Taylor was on his way to the ship’s mess hall with his buddies when his commanding Naval officer told him to return to the radar room to finish up his duties.
Obeying that order saved his life.
Taylor, now a defensive lineman for the Arena Football League’s Colorado Crush, was on board the USS Cole when the ship was rammed by an explosives-laden boat as it refueled in Yemen’s port of Aden on Oct. 12, 2000. The terrorist attack killed 17 sailors—including a friend Taylor would’ve been with if he had gone to the mess hall.
Even now, Taylor doesn’t like to rehash the details of the incident he refers to only as “The Situation.”
“When you come that close to a situation, it shakes you up,” Taylor said. “That …”
He paused, his right foot nervously tapping on the floor at a rapid tempo.
“… could’ve been you,” the 28-year-old finished. “I’m blessed to live my life again.”
He decided to make football an integral part of it.
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At 6-foot-2, 225 pounds, Taylor was an intimidating presence in high school, by far the biggest trombone player in the band.
Taylor had never played organized football until his senior year, preferring Mozart to Madden.
When he moved to Clarke Central High School in Athens, Ga., for his final year, a member of the football team approached him.
“He said, ‘What are you doing in the band? Try football,'” said Taylor, who’s also an accomplished violinist.
So he did. And he turned out to be a natural, playing some linebacker but spending most of his time on the defensive line.
Given Taylor’s late start in football, colleges weren’t banging at his door with scholarship offers.
He enlisted instead. Taylor had a grandfather who served in the Army, and an older brother who followed a similar path. Taylor elected to try something different and went into the Navy.
His military plans were simple—earn enough for college and get out.
He was stationed in Norfolk, Va., and became an operations specialist, learning the art of reading a ship’s radar.
Then, he headed out to sea aboard the USS Cole.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary on the day the ship was attacked by terrorists. Taylor was just about to head off to lunch with his friend and supervisor Timothy Saunders when he was told to finish up an assignment.
The next thing he remembered was being jarred by the impact of the blast.
“Your inner alarm tells you something’s wrong. It was too out of the ordinary,” he said. “But you just kind of go into damage control, do whatever you can do to help your shipmates, and keep the ship afloat.”
Only later did he find out what happened. The explosion hit mid-ship, ripping a hole near the mess hall, killing Saunders and 16 other sailors.
Taylor was in the next compartment over.
“You’re never prepared for a situation like that, especially a cowardly situation,” he said. “People don’t have a chance to defend themselves.”
He keeps the precise details of that day to himself.
Taylor hasn’t been back on a boat since.
After the USS Cole was taken to the shipyard to be repaired, Taylor took an office job and then got out when his four years were complete.
He decided it was time to get serious about football.
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Taylor wrote the coaching staff at Georgia Southern University and asked how he could make the team.
The Eagles said he was welcome to go through open tryouts.
Sold.
Taylor showed up at tryouts and immediately stood out among the other 100 walk-on hopefuls. By then, he was 260 pounds of muscle.
“One of our coaches said, ‘Who’s that guy all “swolled” up,'” former Georgia Southern defensive line coach John Pate said.
That’s how Taylor came by the nickname “The Big Swole.”
“He was an immense physical presence, built like a brick house,” Pate said. “He was rough in the beginning, but had innate ability. Just a pleasure to coach.”
Taylor started out as a special teams player and worked his way into the starting lineup, making the All-Southern Conference team as a linebacker his senior season.
The New York Giants liked Taylor enough to invite him to camp last summer as a defensive lineman. He showed flashes of his talent for the Super Bowl winners, but a foot injury cut short his stint with the Giants during the preseason.
“I left it all on the field,” Taylor said.
Crush coach Mike Dailey happened to be scouting the Giants for potential players and noticed Taylor’s relentless play.
Dailey invited Taylor to give the AFL a shot. Taylor took him up on the offer and has 17 1/2 tackles and one sack for the Crush, who are co-owned by John Elway.
“It’s a little different,” Taylor said of the league. “But I’m learning a lot.”
Dailey has seen constant improvement in the rookie, who’s now 286 pounds and plays both defensive line and linebacker.
“His best years are still ahead of him,” Dailey said. “I hope he gets another opportunity at the NFL. He’s that caliber of player. If they give him another chance, and he takes what he’s learning here, he can make it. I really think he could.”
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Taylor has tried to repress the attack on the USS Cole that October day.
But it plays over and over in his mind, usually when he’s alone after an exhausting day.
“I don’t think you ever come to terms with almost losing your life,” he said. “You find another reason to live life.”
For him, it’s his 4-year-old daughter, Kameron.
“That’s my reason for being here,” he said. “I was given a second chance so she could have a life. That’s how I look at it.”
