Offensive lineman Alex Taylor transferred to South Carolina State, an HBCU, to escape big-time football. The NFL found him anyway. Alex Taylor was not looking for his rightful role as an NFL prospect when he transferred from Appalachian State in 2017. He was looking for something to prevail over the notion that football was his identity. Taylor was looking for a cultural fit, a place to feel more relaxed, an abatement from the industrial complex of Division I football. He transferred to South Carolina State, a historically Black university in the overlooked Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, something outside the White-led world of football, so consumed with the bottom line. He even quit football. And yet, he still ended up smack dab on the radar of the NFL, as big as business gets. |